Warning: Dangerously good (Green Day in general)

Member Name: The_Cat

Product:	Green Day in general
Date:	08/07/01 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Infectious tunes, Great vocalist

Disadvantages: Some songs sound similar (oh, the alliteration!)

Green Day are probably the best-known band to come out of the American west coast punk scene. One of the finest live bands in the world, they don't sound too bad on record either, and have grown increasingly popular with the British music-buying public.

The band began life as Sweet Children, when three high school friends, Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Pritchard and John Kiftmeyer decided to form a group. After Mike came to the conclusion that Dirnt was a much better surname, they recorded several EPs before their first album, 39/Smooth, was released in 1990. The lyrics were simplistic, the tunes were poppy, but the Green Day sound we've came to know and love was already well developed, with Billie Joe's slightly nasal vocals and simple, catchy riffs almost drowning out the rest of the band. The album was re-released as 1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours with tracks from two early EPs, broadening its appeal and making it a must for any serious Green Day fan.

Kiftmeyer left the band to attend college soon after 39/Smooth was recorded, and was replaced by the gloriously named Tre Cool (coincidentally, Tre's real name is Frank Edwin Wright - which explains a lot about why his name was changed!). In 1992, Kerplunk was unleashed upon the unsuspecting public (or unaware public, depending on how you look at it). Less poppy than 39/Smooth, this album was a good indication of what was to come - songs about teenage angst, forceful, chuggy guitars, Tre having so much fun he felt compelled to write a jokey song - called Dominated Love Slave - about S&M-loving rednecks.

All pleasant enough (well, not ALL pleasant enough - Dominated Love Slave had me in therapy for 6 months), but the boys had hardly set the world alight. Heck, they'd hardly even set California alight. They would though - by mid 1994, the public had been introduced to Dookie, perhaps the finest punk-pop album ever. Known almost universally as 'that one with Ba
sket Case on it', Dookie was the long player that finally gave Green Day their much deserved big break. Perhaps the album's biggest selling point was the wide range of musical styles - tear-jerking power ballads (When I Come Around), angry guitar driven punk (In The End), poppy descriptions of insanity (Basket Case), and a secret song from Tre about the joys of, ahem, self-pleasure. Many of the songs were similar, but it mattered little when they were all so brilliant.

Now the band had became mainstream. Banned from punk clubs for signing with a major label (well, a major-ish label), they had at least gained the public's affections with their special brand of punky pop. Now was the perfect chance to milk their fame and keep the new found fans. Instead, they released Insomniac, an album that repelled as many people as it attracted. There was nothing particularly wrong with it - indeed, it's probably just about my favourite Green Day album - but it sounds much heavier, chuggier, angrier and in some cases shoutier than any other Green Day album, with only three songs that would sound right on Dookie. However, as one of these songs, Stuart and the Ave., is the finest song Billie Joe has ever written, Insomniac is still well worth a purchase. Hey, if you don't like it, tape the Dookie-ish songs, then get your money back. Just don't tell them I sent you...

Having alienated some of the Dookie worshippers, Billie and the boys seeked to win them back with the 1997 album Nimrod, and they by and large succeeded with by far their most diverse release. Containing more love songs than any other Green Day release, the old sound was still there, but mixed with several other styles, such as Latin trumpety stuff (King For A Day), thrash metal (Take Back), and gentle acoustic strumming (Good Riddance [Time Of Your Life], which is as fine a piece of sad, longful music as you'll ever hear). This gave it mass appeal, and made it th
e Green Day record most likely to be nestled away in the back of someone's record collection.

Green Day then went quiet on the recording front for three years, although their live shows were as frequent and brilliant as ever. Finally, their sixth studio album Warning was released in Britain in October 2000, preceded by Minority, their highest-charting Britsih single (No. 19 for one week). Warning proved a disappointment to many, as it marked a change in musical direction. Minority was as close as the album came to old-style Green Day, with the rest of the album veering into pop and folk territory. Despite this, the songs were as infectious and catchy as ever, and those who were willing to open their ears to the new sound were in for a treat.

So what's next? Who knows? Quite frankly, who cares when we have already been lucky enough to experience one of the finest groups of all time?

P.S - sorry about the title. I'm tired, a little bored and currently have the imagination of a new-born shrew.

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