This is my favourite of Green Day’s albums, much better for tunes and less whiney than earlier efforts, and more in their musical prime than more recent releases. The tone is pretty teenage angsty but if you can live with that there are some excellent songs.
It’s not the kind of thing that you’ll love straight away, but given a few listens you will find yourself singing along.
The first track, ’Burnout’, opens explosively, signalling the intentions for the rest of the album. This is a catchy guitar driven tune, as most of Green Day’s are, with dynamic drumming and a decent tune. The drum solo on this song has to be heard, as the band build it up and then basically just give Tre Cool 8 bars to run riot. It seems like he is using about seven sticks, with some in his teeth or toes or something.
It’s not until the next song, ’Having A Blast’ that you may actually notice the existence of a bass guitar as it is at a very high pitch and placed low down in the mix. This song is most notable, to me anyway, for its drumming. Otherwise it’s a good song, lacking a chorus but catchy nonetheless.
’Chump’ is very standard Green Day fare but fans will still enjoy it. There are no terrible tracks on this album. This song seems to me to be somewhat of a prelude to ’Longview’ and not much more, and breaks down and is mixed straight into the next track.
’Longview’ is one of my favourite Green Day tracks. It is essentially a song about masturbation, ’some say quit or I’ll go blind’, but this shouldn’t put you off! It’s a fantastically punchy, catchy, well structured song that you can’t fail to like. A catchy little bass riff and tom-tom accompaniment give way to an explosive, rhythmic, bouncy chorus and I can’t help singing along.
Anyone who owns ’Kerplunk!’ will already know ’Welcome to Paradise’, which has been ever so slightly altered for this album. The main differences are slightly better production and better singing. This song is decent lyrically, but unfortunately Billy Joe’s nasal voice makes ’broken homes’ sound like ’broken gnomes’, which kind of ruins the depressed message about run-down slums. Nonetheless this was pretty much the best song on ’Kerplunk!’ and remains one of the standout tracks on ’Dookie’, with more outstanding drumming, terrific energy, nice backing vocals and, yup you guessed it, a catchy tune!
’Pulling Teeth’ gives a bit of respite, with a slight drop in pace and energy and more focus on vocals. For once, Tre Cool is content to sit back and let the others have a go and this is the first time we hear a guitar solo, which pretty much follows the track laid by the vocals but comes across well nonetheless. This fairly emotional tune is one of my favourites, and gives you a minute to think and recover before the onslaught begins again, with Green Day’s most famous and probably best track, ’Basket Case’.
This is a truly brilliant song with the whole band working together to produce a terrific, energetic tune which fits perfectly with the emotions expressed within it. This song has some of the best drumming you will hear in modern music, a great melody and aggressive, punchy guitar playing. It all makes for a terrific song.
After ’Basket Case’ there is a slight tendency not to pay too much attention to the rest of the album, but there are still some good tunes left. The general tone remains pretty much the same, energetic, dynamic and catchy pop-rock except for the slightly more mellow ’When I Come Around’, and the strange final track ’F.O.D.’ which on first listen sounds like it really shouldn’t be there. The standout tracks from the rest of the album are, in my opinion, ’She’, and ’Coming Clean’, but I enjoy it all and don’t feel there’s a single bad track on this album.
Okay, it’s not profound and it’s a bit poppy, but it’s great to listen to and has some fantastic musicianship in places, especially when you look at the sleeve (and listen to the hidden track!) and realise how young they were when they made this.
All in all this is a great album that I would certainly recommend to anyone who can stand distorted guitars and who would be prepared to give it a few listens to let the tracks separate from one another!
For anyone getting into Green Day this should be the starting point, definitely their best album.