This was Green Day’s second album and undoubtedly their best. It was this album that gained them mainstream recognition and led to them getting a record contract with Reprise.
The album gets off to a promising start with 2000 Light Years which has gone down as a classic. The production job wasn’t particularly top quality on this album but it was acceptable. Billie Joe manages to create some very strange sounds from his guitar most of which sound excellent.
Other standout tracks on this CD include Welcome to Paradise which has also gone down as one of my favourites.
Billie Joe never struggles to find a catchy melody and it can take a very long time to become bored of Green Day CDs. Mike Dirnt on bass does a stunning job on Welcome To Paradise which has a very tricky bass part underneath the guitar.
Tré Cool (drums) as ever seems to do a very good job although sometimes his drums don’t seem to match with the overall sound of the album.
Some people call Green Day a punk band and whilst I don’t totally disagree with this I don’t think it is entirely correct. Punk is supposed to be a very quick and aggressive form of music and to be quite honest Green Day have never been like that. They have had the punk attitude though so I suppose that punk would be the best genre to neatly slide them into.
Billie Joe doesn’t have traditional punk vocals - i.e. he can actually sing. He has a very clear voice that really compliments his guitars.
Overall I would say that this was Green Day’s best album and they are yet to better it.