Yeah it's also interesting to me that while Insomniac wasn't nearly as big a hit as Dookie it still went double platinum and Brain Stew has really stood the test of time in terms of airplay, I still hear it on the radio.
This is Foo Fighters “A320” erasure. Actually, the whole album rules minus that rockabilly/soul song and Days of The New.
The Wallflowers’ “Heroes” cover was my first exposure to Bowie. Still my favorite Bowie song. And a good cover too!
same to the first sentence, i disagree with the second, and agree with the third. rollercoaster of emotions. edit: reread and saw you said heroes is your favorite, which would be a weird thing to disagree on lol. overall i don’t love the track and think he has much better in the berlin era but i get why it’s the hit for sure
i remember Fuzzbubble as the the backing band for all of the live performances of It's All About The Benjamins (rock remix)
i'm so excited for this record i did yet another green day discog run, trying to remain as open as possible to the records i have nothing but contempt for, and here are some brief reflections: 1,039/smoothed out slappy hours: i'd never heard this in full before, i don't think. the album (39/smooth aka the first ten tracks) is OK, very basic early '90s bay area punk, anytime the tempo dips they suddenly sound like jawbreaker. however it's amazing to get to the slappy EP and hear them really lock into the Green Day Sound™ for the first time kerplunk: god the songs are so ridiculously good at this point. i don't think people talk about "words i might have ate" enough. the only real failing here is the production... i can't help but contrast it with dookie which is just so much punchier dookie: it's good insomniac: it's perfect. a concept album about methamphetamine addiction... j/k only two songs are about that, but it sure sounds like meth. production is so nasty. and "panic song" remains my favorite gd song after "j.a.r." nimrod: my green day fandom lapsed around this time, who can say why, and "time of your life" is the only song that really broke through to the radio stations i listened to... idk, i just never bought it. i probably would've been in love with it if i had. as it is it expands their ambitions slightly while also being sooo catchy and sharply-written. might never be my favorite green day album but i get why others think it's their best warning: green day fandom RESUMED. i ADORED this record so much in high school and was soooo confused that everyone else hated it. billie's songwriting really becomes something else here imo. amazing to make something that is technically a Folk Punk record that doesn't sound anything like the actual genre of folk punk american idiot: it's good 21st century breakdown: i've already talked about how much i love this one. still my second favorite. big hooks big gestures big songs, big big big, and they make it work THE TRILOGY: .... well. even if i liked every song on all three records, it would still feel weird, empty, and directionless coming off of 21st century breakdown. the guitar tones are terrible, even open chords sound palm-muted, you cannot tell that they added their touring guitarist to the lineup at all because there's just nothing interesting going on with the guitar parts, etc. etc. etc. i made a single disc trilogy reduction and tried a few approaches (for example, what if it really were the motown/old rock and soul record that billie joe talked it up as????... unfortunately there are only a few of those songs and the only great one is "stray heart") but i ultimately just decided to put together the best 14 songs, which ended up making it sound like a way less good version of nimrod. tracklist behind the spoiler see you tonight stay the night stop when the red lights flash let yourself go 8th avenue serenade lazy bones x-kid rusty james stray heart amanda loss of control dirty rotten bastards oh love amy revolution radio: listen, i get it, this does sound way better than the trilogy, in fact the best parts of it sound like a more condensed 21st century breakdown... but something, idk what exactly, is missing. "still breathing" is great, i forgot how much i liked "outlaws," and i think like the first half of "forever now" is almost the best post-21CB green day song. but anytime the tempo slows it's... not good ("say goodbye" and the much worse "troubled times") father of all motherfuckers: this is the first time i realized that this album has the exact same concept as the fucking trilogy!!!! i.e. "we're gonna do motown/old rock-and-soul-influenced stuff plus some attempts at dance-punk we are not actually good at writing or playing." can't believe they tried to get away with that shit twice. i think i was kind to this record when it came out but it is mostly not good! "meet me on the roof," "sugar youth," "graffitia" are the only songs i really like and don't spend their runtime going "hm" at. production is mysteriously awful predicting saviors will def be the best since 21st century
Been on a Nimrod kick since this thread and I’m nearly ready to put this at the Dookie/AI level. It’s just killer from front to back and weird in all the right ways.
MCR always kinda sounds like they're ripping american idiot but that's the one time where GD sounds like they're ripping MCR
My biggest problem with Where Are Your Boys Tonight (an otherwise excellent book) is that it's never once mentioned how much The Black Parade owes to American Idiot.
To my ears, I don't really think anything on Black Parade sounds like Green Day. For me, the similarities kinda end at both albums being vague concept records that were relatively ambitious for the era and their respective genres. Danger Days, on the other hand, has some parts that fully feel like American Idiot (e.g., the guitars on "Bulletproof Heart").