From teenage angst and masturbation to psychoanalysis and jealous rage - Greenday are by no means a ‘hearts and flowers’ band, but perhaps that’s part of what makes them so great.

Angry, energetic, and endearingly honest, Dookie is an album for anyone who’s ever loved and lost, fought with their own psyche or remembers what it was like to be a teenager.

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Burnout

“Apathy has rained on me now I'm feeling like a soggy dream, so close to drowning but I don't mind…”

With its manic drum beats and frenzied guitar, this is a great song to start the album with. Anyone who has felt themselves speeding (literally or figuratively) through their youth, as if they will burn out before they actually manage to grow up, this song is for you.

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Having A Blast

“I'm taking all you down with me, explosives duct taped to my spine. Nothing's gonna change my mind…”

A violent, noisy song about losing your mind and being so angry you just want to scream your head off and smash everything in sight. If you ever find yourself feeling this way, listen to this song instead – it’ll be less destructive and believe me, you’ll feel better for it.

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Chump

“I don't know you but I think I hate you, you're the reason for my misery. Strange, how you've become my biggest enemy, I have never even seen your face…”

I’ve never been entirely sure whether this song is about hating the person you’re lover has left you for/cheated on you with, or about hating someone you’ve always wanted to be like but can’t. Either way, it’s about jealousy and insecurity, and though not one of my favourite songs it’s still catchy and has a damn good beat to it.

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Long View

“Bite my lip and close my eyes, take me away to para
dise. I’m so damn bored I’m going blind and I smell like sh*t…”

Set to a beat you just won’t be able to help drumming your fingers to, Long View is a song for anyone who’s ever been unemployed and bored out of their brains, yet unable to find the motivation to do anything about it. Probably my second favourite on this album, this song will have you humming for the rest of the day.

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Welcome to Paradise

“Dear mother, can you hear me whining, it's been three whole weeks since I have left your home. This sudden fear has left me trembling…”

This is another damn fine song, about a guy moving out of his parents’ house and into (what he sees as) a dangerous slum area. At first he is terrified, but gradually he begins to realise that he can make it on his own after all, and ends up deciding that “For some strange reasons it's now feeling like my home and I'm never gonna go…”

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Pulling Teeth

“Is she ultra violent? Is she disturbed? I better tell her that I love her before she does it all over again. Oh God, she’s killing me…”

For once, a song about physical abuse from a woman rather than a man (although I believe some of the lyrics about ‘broken bones and nasty cuts’ may be metaphors for emotional abuse). This guy has been hurt so many times yet still he loves his girlfriend too much (and perhaps is also too scared of her) to let her go. “No one knows I'm locked in here, all I do is cry…” A sad song with lyrics that I think many of you will relate to, if perhaps not literally.

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Basket Case

“Do you have the time to listen to me whine about nothing and everything all at once? I am one of those melodramatic fools neurotic to the bone no doubt about it…”

Ever sometimes wondered whether you’re
crazy and the rest of the world is sane, or if it’s the other way round? (Perhaps it’s just me…) Whether you have or not, this song just rocks – a fast beat that will have you dancing round the room, brilliant lyrics and another tune that will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day. This is definitely my favourite song on the album, possibly even my favourite Greenday song altogether (which is saying a lot – there’s some pretty stiff competition). It never fails to lift my spirits – if I hadn’t been writing this at work (um, on my lunch break, of course) I’d be singing it right now.

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She

“She, she screams in silence, a sullen riot penetrating through her mind. Waiting for a sign to smash the silence with the brick of self control…”

A beautiful song, far more mellow than most of the other tracks. All about being controlled by society and the people around you, to the point that you really don’t know who you are anymore and all you can do is scream in silence…

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Sassafras Roots

“I'm a waste like you with nothing else to do. May I waste your time, too?”

Again, not one of my favourites. This song tends to be a little repetitive (with ‘wasting your time’ as every second line) and is nothing special compared to the other tracks. That being said, it’s still not a bad song.

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When I Come Around

“I heard it all before so don't knock down my door. I'm a loser and a user so I don't need no accuser to try and slag me down because I know I'm right…”

This song (in my opinion) is the epitome of the egotistical male. About a guy who’s just dumped his girlfriend because he was afraid she’d cheat on him first, he ignores her tears and goes ‘out on the prowl’ while telling her “You may find o
ut that your self-doubt means nothing was ever there”. Bastard. But a great song, with brilliant gritty guitar riffs.

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Coming Clean

“Seventeen and strung out on confusion, trapped inside a roll of disillusion. I found out what it takes to be a man, now mom and dad will never understand…”

Another song about growing up, though this time it’s about being man enough to confess when you’ve done something wrong. Not a really stand-out song but still good.

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Emenius Sleepus

“It wasn't long ago and I was just like you, now I think I'm sick and I wanna go home…”

Did you ever have a really close friend, who you just stopped and looked at one day and thought ‘what the hell’s happened to you?’. This song is all about when friends change for worse, and missing the people they used to be.

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In The End

“I figured out that you're all about and I don't think I like what I see, so... I hope I won't be there in the end if you come around…”

This time it’s the woman who’s a superficial bitch, dumping her boyfriend for Mr “All brawn and no brains…Someone to look good with and light your cigarette”. And the guy who’s finally clued in to her real personality too late, left to console himself by thinking that when she does finally figure out it’s him she wants, he won’t be there anymore… Fast paced and aggressive, another great angry song.

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F.O.D.

“Struck down in a rut of dislogic and smut, a side of you well hid. When it's all said and done, it's real and it's been fun, but was it all real fun?”

Yet another song about anger and breaking up, the best thing about this song is the sudden change between controlled analysis and psychotic anger. Alternatively titled &
#8216;F**k Off and Die’, this is another of my favourite songs. The violent guitar riffs and heavy beat is great, and the lyrics… well haven’t we all sometimes just felt like saying “You're just a f**k I can't explain it 'cause I think you suck! I'm taking pride in telling you to f**k off and die!”? (C’mon, it can’t just be me…)

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All By Myself

“You and me had such wonderful times…I was all by myself…”

This is a bizarre little acoustic song stuck on several minutes after the end of F.O.D. It’s sung in a very silly high pitched voice (by the drummer, I’m told) and is about a guy who sneaks into the house of a girl he likes and masturbates on her bed. Hmm… disturbing and strange is the best I can say about this. But it’s short.

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All in all, a fantastic album. If you like rock/alternative music in the slightest and don’t already have it – go out and buy it (I’ve often seen it on the sales racks in HMV and Virgin – you should be able to pick it up for under a tenner).

If you do have it, put it on now, crank up the volume and sing along with me…

“IT ALL KEEPS ADDING UP, I THINK I’M CRACKING UP, AM I JUST PARANOID OR AM I STONED!?!!”