I’m a huge fucking Green Day nut. So now I’m going to talk about the albums that I own. They’ll be ordered by year they came out.
Their “breakout” album, the one that got them on the charts back in the day. The songs all felt a little similar on my first listen (though I had just come from American Idiot), with the exception of the Chump-Longview transition, Basket Case (I had heard it before) and All By Myself at the end, which cracked me up. After the songs started coming on in shuffle, I really started to take to them and I really love this album now and respect it for what it is. Also Basket Case is hella overrated. All the songs in general I really like. Also as a drummer, huge respect to Tre here with all his short, air-tight fills in every song.
Favorite songs: Chump/Longview, Welcome to Paradise, F.O.D.
This album I just found for $4 at a music store last weekend, so I haven’t had much time to see the songs come up in shuffle. I did listen through it once, and got the same feeling as I did with Dookie at first (save Brain Stew of course, but if it goes anything like that one, I’m sure I’ll come to love it.
Armatage Shanks with it’s powerful tom beat at the beginning gave me very different expectations for the song than what I got. I was frankly disappointed when I found the song wasn’t how I expected. Brain Stew is as popular as it is for a reason and I love it. The rest is just generally decent.
Favorite songs (so far): Brain Stew, Armatage Shanks intro
Nimrod was a wild ride that kept me interested through it’s 18 songs, and left me wanting more at the end. Hitchin’ a Ride was immediately my favorite as soon as it started, and it fails to disappoint through the whole thing (it’s bit in Bullet in a Bible was awesome too)Â
Platypus (I Hate You) is one of the fastest songs I’ve heard from them and I loved every second, especially the little bridge in the middle,Â
Dickhead, fuckface
Cock-smoking, mother-fucking
Asshole, dirty twat
Waste of semen, I hope you die
made me immediately go find the lyrics so I could see exactly how much the victim was roasted, and gave me my new favorite insult (waste of semen).Â
Last Ride In was a huge surprise, and is the only completely instrumental Green Day song to my knowledge. I love it’s super chill, surf-y feel.
Favorite songs: Hitchin’ a Ride, Platypus (I Hate You), Last Ride In, Haushinka, King for a day, Prosthetic Head
Above this line is one era of Green Day, and below is another. The earlier stuff’s sound slowly transformed from a bunch of dudes messing around in their parents’ basement and having fun to more planned-out, well produced things. It’s a change most bands go through. Below this is the short rock opera stage, where some truly amazing albums came from.
The best. No contest. Everything about it is perfect and I love all of it’s 75 minutes (on the deluxe version). The story it lays out is awesome (great video on it here) and it was adapted into a Broadway play for god’s sake!Â
American Idiot was the first Green Day song I ever heard, and I was hooked from the first riff. Jesus of Suburbia is the most meaningful song I’ve ever heard, and still keeps its musical side through its nine minutes of lyrics. Everything is just absolutely amazing and nothing holds up to it. No album I’ve found so far has topped it. (Keygeneration and ✝ did come close though). Also Boulevard of Broken Dreams is the most overrated song Green Day has ever made. It’s not bad, but even on that album there’s songs that are miles better.
Favorite songs: All of them. American Idiot at the top, I can’t comfortably say a bottom to it.
21st Century Breakdown (2009)
This one continues American Idiot’s rock opera-idea, but doesn’t hold up. It’s still one of my favorites, But it still couldn’t hold up to American Idiot. Story is a bit less there, though I think it’s about a couple trying to get by in 2009 I guess. It definitely had some amazing songs that stick with me more than two years after my first listen. Not a huge amount to say about it I don’t think. It also has a cover of the song A Quick One While He’s Away by The Who on the deluxe edition, which is pretty cool.
Favorite songs: East Jesus Nowhere, ¿Viva la Gloria? (Little Girl), Horseshoes and Handgrenades, American Eulogy
Here’s where it changes. In 2012 Green Day released a trilogy of albums over the course of four months. And they... were not that good. They really shifted from a purely rock/punk rock sound to a strong pop rock. And it didn’t really suit them. The next stuff goes back to more of a combination of actual rock and pop rock. It’s not that bad, but we’ve only seen one album from this so far.
This is the latest studio album. It has a unique pop-punk sound that I kind of like, but it’s all around pretty decent. I don’t have much thoughts about it, and the singles were probably the best ones there. Kinda eh in general though.
Favorite songs: Bang Bang, Revolution Radio, Say Goodbye, Too Dumb to Die
Greatest Hits: God's Favorite Band (2017)
Yeah, yeah, a best-of album. Not super highly thought of in some music communities. Still not totally sure why I got it, I already own all of the songs on their own respective albums (except for Minority, Warning, and Oh Love). But there is Back in the USA which was pretty cool and so was it’s music video. Also the album cover is pretty great.
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