Green Day, Warning Reviews

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Good Points: Defiant of underground punk etiquette in perfect punk style
Highly musical and experimental

Bad Points: lightly too poppy for some hardcore punks

General comments: Green Day had a similar issue, as with The Offspring, in terms of their music and their genre. They had broken into mainstream; a scowled upon move by underground punks, making them "uncool". However, where The Offspring had educated their movements, Green Day had gone with the flow, and their own huge influence could not avoid the inevitable move to the airwaves. "Nimrod's" surprise success led to underground punk bands; for example NOFX and Pennywise, criticising Green Day for that album's overly commercial facade; their smash hit "Time of your Life" selling millions of singles worldwide meant Green Day were labelled "sell outs" by such bands, and the punk kids who had followed the band from humble beginnings, their image unhip in underground punk. Warning is an appropriate title for this album, as it displays Green Day's "we don't care" attitude about the blatant image consciousness of punk as a genre: it is a conformation that Green Day are here to stay. They embrace their love for unabashed pop, as this indignant and grunge tinted album deviates from underground etiquette and shows how they won't take anyone's advice. Green Day will always do their own thing and follow their own musical path, as is clear on Warning; they are out for fun, not image. And this is a fun album, and probably the best of their career to date.

From catchy pop and punk hooks to more progressive and grungy, this is Green Day's most musically creative effort, as on most of tracks they slow down the pace and leave the tenuous world of three chord punk. It trundles along (I use that word loosely) with its own happy-go-lucky attitude, with instead of punk anthems, we see the band trying their palettes with some new techniques. An example of these is where Billie Joe tries his hand at a mandolin with the french sounding, lyrically snarling "Misery," while other track highlights show old school "Dookie" fashion Green Day, such as the feverishly catchy bass lines of "Castaway" and the typical "F**k em all" message in the belting smash hit "Minority." These two alone are enough to satisfy any punk fan. The best track of the album is the title track "Warning," with its quick-witted lyrics and simple pop hooks.

This album is very, very good! A must for all fans great and small of the gods of mainstream punk. The only criticisms are that of punk image: musically it's a corker, which is exactly what Green Day intended.