Warning, The sound of growing up. (Warning - Green Day)

Member Name: kylecoare

Product:	Warning - Green Day
Date:	01/12/03 (497 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some great tunes, good vocals, Macy's day parade

Disadvantages: A few fillers, some vocals not up to standard.

GREEN DAY - WARNING
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Green Day have been playing quality punk music since the late 1980's, with some classic fast paced punk songs such as Basket Case, Longview and When I come Around, in fact most of their songs could be summed up as three chords chart toppers.

So it was quite a surprise for the fans when they released this album, which stepped away from the fast paced three chord electric guitars and thrashy drums, and introduced a more pop orientated offering, which brought the Acoustic guitars to the front and gave the band the chance to show their musical talent.

Green Day first formed in the mid 80's when Billie Joe and Mike decided to form a band, both were at the same school and were listening to all the same bands, groups like the Replacements, Mr T Experience and Operation Ivy, also groups like the Jam and the Beatles had an influence on Billie's style.

Originally known as Sweet Children, they soon changed the name to Green Day, which is a term relating to smoking marijuana all day, they released two albums on the great indie punk label, Lookout Records, these album showed a lot of promise although the sound quality wasn't quite as good as on later albums.

Then in 1994 they hit the mainstream with mega selling album, Dookie, this was one of the highest selling albums ever and gave punk music its chance in the mainstream.
But this also lost the band a few fans, as they thought the band had sold out, but personally I have never cared about that side of the music, as the band is so good it really doesn't matter if they are on a big label or a small one.

After Dookie the bands next two albums sold well but were never quite as good as the big seller, Insomniac and Nimrod came out between 1995 and 1997, these were both good albums but lacked a bit of the sparkle of Dookie.

Then in 2000 they released this album, which was slated for roaming too far away
from their punk routes, this always seemed unfair as anyone that actually listens to the album will notice its still Green Day playing their style of music, okay so it isn't quite as fast paced or rocking but it is still good.

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Members
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The band consists of:-

Billie Joe Armstrong - Vocals and Guitar.
Mike Dirnt - Bass and Backing Vocals.
Tre Cool - Drums.

The album also features a Dominatrix whipping a sound Engineer, but more of that later in the review!

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THE ALBUM
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The album contains 13 tracks, and comes in at a cool 45 minutes.

TRACK ONE - WARNING
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The title track opens the album, and as soon as it starts you can already hear the old Green Day magic, whilst noticing that there is a strong sound of Acoustic guitars.

The main riff is a jaunty bouncy catchy little number, and really gives this song the sound it deserves and although there are no electric guitars or distortion this is still as rocking as some of their earlier songs.
The drum track is quite hard and rocking which really holds the rest of the song together.

The vocals by Billie are strong and show a lot of the power of the early albums, but without as much of a nasally sound as he used to have.

TRACK TWO - BLOOD,SEX AND BOOZE
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Enter the Dominatrix, this song opens with a sound engineer being whipped by a dominatrix,which sounds quite painful, it soon kicks into another bouncy number, and the electric guitars are back!
The song has a strong riff which keeps the song interesting all way through.

Vocally this song is about right, although it does sound a bit irritating when Billie starts to shout, as his voice doesn't really suit this.

TRACK THREE - CHURCH ON SUNDAY
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This is a great tun
e, really it takes the band back to their heyday, but adds a more poppy feel to the sound.
Again it is quite a rocking track and it would fit anywhere in their back catalogue so it completely goes against the whole sell out thing this album got accused of.

Billie provides some of his best vocals here, with the chorus being plain brilliant and having a lot of feeling to it.

TRACK FOUR - FASHION VICTIM
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This song reminds me of Blur's Charmless Man, which isn't as bad as it sounds, the song opens with another very catchy guitar riff.
The drums are quite driving and build up the tune.

Billie's vocals are again top notch, and show how talented this man actually is.

TRACK FIVE - CASTAWAY
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One of my least favourites on the album, whilst not a poor song it just sounds like an out take from earlier albums.
With an upbeat tune, which really doesn't stick in your brain like some of the other great tunes here.
The guitars are well played but unfortunately the tune isn't really good enough to contain such well played guitars!
The saving points are Billies vocals and Mikes Bass playing which are both brilliant.

TRACK SIX - MISERY
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This is a great tune, it sounds a lot like a German opera or another eastern Europe musical.
With some strange instruments being used during this song, it sounds like nothing Green Day have done before, and gives the band a whole new sound.

The song is fairly slow, with a bouncy sound to it.

Vocally this is perfect, with Billie telling a sort of Pulp Fiction type story about drug dealers and murders.

You really have to hear this to understand what I mean.

TRACK SEVEN - DEADBEAT HOLIDAY
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This is another that is fairly reminiscent of early songs, but it isn't quite as good, with
the music again being a bit simple and forgettable, something I never thought id say about this band, I can imagine this being good live but here it just sounds like a basic album track that doesn't try too hard.

TRACK EIGHT - HOLD ON
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This opens with a cool Harmonica intro, and brings this album back to life, with a slow jumpy acoustic riff.

The drums never sound too overpowering and altogether this makes a nice likeable song, which whilst not punk or as rocking as earlier songs, it shows how well the band have progressed musically.

Another fine vocal performance by Billie makes this one a top tune.

TRACK NINE - JACKASS
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This is another uptempo tune, which has a cool drum beat and some simple but effective guitar sounds.
Although its not one of the best Green Day tunes it is still worthy of a few listens, and it is catchy enough, but it falls a little flat as the lyrics are not as well done as on some of the other songs.

TRACK TEN - WAITING
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Im surprised the band hasn't been sued for this song, as it is almost a direct rip off of the old song Downtown, even down to some of the lyrics.

But that doesn't make it a bad song, in fact it is very catchy and well worthy of its place on this album.

But the band does seem to have lost some of its great choruses, which is a shame.

Billie sings this with a lot of power and it sounds like he's enjoying it.

TRACK ELEVEN - MINORITY
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I think this is a great song, a lot of people felt let down by this, but it gave me a lot of hours jumping around my local indie club.

Musically I really cant fault this song, it has an almost Irish sound a bit like the Pogues, but it also has the trademark Green Day sound, which really works well here.

And the chorus is very catchy, bringing back mem
ories of earlier moments.

TRACK TWELVE - MACY'S DAY PARADE
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A fantastic track, on of my all time favourites by any band.

A slow acoustic number with most of the praise going to Billie Joe's vocal performance, you can almost picture him on stage with a blue light shining on him and thousands of people hold lighters in the air, this is the perfect slow ballad.

This would have been the perfect way to end the album, and if you buy in any other country this is the last song, but over here we get an extra track.

TRACK THIRTEEN - 86 (LIVE)
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This is a live version of the song which first appeared on 1995's Insomnia album, and it makes a strange choice as an end to this album, as it is a rocking punky number, the original was a very good song, but this live version suffers from Billies vocals being quite poor.

Im sure they could have picked a better tune to end with, but seeing as this is only available on the UK version I suppose I shouldn't moan!

OVERALL

Whilst this is not as instant or as catchy as Dookie, it is still a great album which shows how well the band have grown musically.
They don't need to stick to three chords anymore, seeing as they have learnt to use a few more.

So if your already a fan of Green Day, but haven't got this album because of bad ratings it has received, then you should at least try it anyway, its not as bad as people are saying.
Anyone new to the band should try this and then try their whole back catalogue as your missing out on some great tunes!

Thanks for reading.

Kyle

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