Hit and Miss (Shenanigans - Green Day)

Member Name: hugon

Product:	Shenanigans - Green Day
Date:	12/03/03 (182 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: JAR is amazing

Disadvantages: Doesn't flow like proper album, Most fans already have the b-sides

Don't get me wrong, I think this is a great set of songs, and Green Day are still my favourite band on the planet. It does suffer from being a B-side collection and is therefore more of a collection of odds and sods rather than a proper album, which means it is less balanced, less 'Green Day' than you're perhaps used to.

The album does have it's highlights - the amazing 'JAR', previously only available on the Angus soundtrack is in my opinion one of the best things Green Day have done in their career, it's classic old skool Green Day with lumbering bassline, breakneck speed and tender lyrics about a childhood friend who died.

New track 'Haha you're dead' (the only new track on the album) is also great, a return to the simpler pop punk style after the slight departure towards middle-of-the-road on Warning.

Some tracks could have stood as singles or at least album tracks in their own right - Scumbag, Sick of Me, Desensitized and Suffocate all have Green Day written all over them, simple three chord power punk, frenetic and over in the blink of an eye.

It's the slower tracks that let the album down - a cover of Tired of waiting for you is pedestrian and lacks any real point, On the Wagon is slightly better but again doesn't really sit with the rest of the tracks which are more fast paced. Sticking On the Wagon as the penultimate track was also a mistake in my opinino, it almost spoils the finish to the album.

Also worth pointing out before I wrap up is the sublime 'Espionage', an instrumental more Bond than the Bond themes and which cropped up in the second Austin Powers movie. It's cheeky and cheery and well worth a listen. I was a little disappointed by this album, I should have known what to expect really, already being in possesion of all the b-sides. It's just it could have been 'more', if they'd thrown in some more new material and a few l
ive tracks too (live tracks being some of my favourite Green Day b-sides). Still, it passes the time until we're graced with a new studio album - hurry up lads!

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