Am using ciao more for consumer purposes only now. I still sign in and read ops and may occasionally...
Am using ciao more for consumer purposes only now. I still sign in and read ops and may occasionally write one for the database, but no longer consider myself part of the community. Timmy/Mike.
Member since:28.04.2001
Reviews:55
Members who trust:124
The future might be bright and orange, but the last decade has definitely been green. And that is certainly not a bad thing; Green Day can well and truly claim to be the popular fathers of New School Punk and the inspiration for Blink 182, Less Than Jake and all the rest. In my opinion Dookie is the best Green Day album and well, every time I pull my beer-stained copy (not a copy copy, but an official one that cost me money) out of my CD rack I can’t help feeling a touch sentimental about it, for it is top quality party music and as such brings back many interesting memories, and some non-memories too!
~The midst’s of time~
Okay, so Green Day aren’t quite that old, in fact they aren’t particularly old at all; the three of them being born in 1972. They are Billy Joe Armstrong (Lead vocals & Guitar), Mike Dirnt (Bass & Backing vocals) and Tre Cool (Drums, Backing vocals). Billy & Mike were childhood friends, smoking joints together from the age of ten (and I am not pro this in any way, I just like their music) and music-mad. They formed the band (then called Sweet Children) in 1987 (aged just 15) along with John Kiftmayer, who was then the drummer. John left for college in 1990 and was replaced by his drum teacher, Tre. In 1989 the band had been renamed Green Day, and released their first album, 39/Smooth, and gained recognition with their 1991 album Kerplunk. They got their major breakthrough in 1993 when they signed with big name label Warner Bros. Reprise and that year released Dookie, a huge hit that had chart success and earned them a Grammy Award for best alternative music performance.
So what makes Dookie so great? In my opinion it is Green Day at their best, the mixture of happy and silly punk tunes with some more conventional melodies, and songs can therefore build up to a climax it a peaceful manner before exploding with passion and noise. Along with Offspring and Rancid, Green Day spear-headed this new “school” of mainstream, popular punk, that achieved chart success through being silly yet meaningful (sounds like a paradox, but I mean that it appears silly until you dig deeper) and not too crude or disgusting; I can’t stand bands that do things like urinate on stage (ugghh, makes me sick). However what makes the music really great is that it just makes you want to get up and dance, shout the lyrics and let all the frustration of life pour out of you. Unfortunately while Dookie contains some fabulous
tunes that do this it also contains some rather poor ones that quite frankly just make me want to go to sleep (the same effect as most of the music that currently plagues the UK pop charts).
To give you a better idea I’ll stick to the boring, but tried and tested method of music ops (this is my first one by the way). So, here is Dookie, track by track.
~The Circuit~
I’ll go through the tracks in order, and will put the track number followed by my order of preference (1-14 best to worst tracks on the album) in brackets, and a rating out of ten, for easy reference.
1. (14) 5/10 BURNOUT: A very popular song, but I find it a very disappointing start to the album. It starts of well with a good tune but unfortunately this remains pretty much the same throughout with only one or two variations, much like a dance tune. The vocals are pretty poor too, but at least the lyrics are good and easy to relate too: “I declare I don’t care no more”. 2. (7) 7/10 HAVING A BLAST: A dramatic improvement on the first song and the first to show the melodical rhythm/punk mixture that has brought the groups so much success. The intro is good, a good guitar instrumental followed by some good vocals, and this early melody gradually builds up, right up to the end. The lyrics are pretty typically Green Day (“I’m taking you all down with me, explosives duct taped to my spine) and my only complaint is that it isn’t really inspiration, perhaps because it climaxes (I cringe every time I say that word in case Sarah/Trampus reads this op and takes it the wrong way!) too late to really get you going before it’s all over. Still, a good song, and refreshing after Burnout. 3. (11) 6/10 CHUMP: Another popular song that I find disappointing, for similar reasons to Burnout, only the vocals are fine and the tune has slightly more variety (the odd drumroll). However the lyrics, although perhaps being deep and meaningful, are not really inspiring: “I don’t know you but I think I hate you”. Not something that I really want to jump around and sing along too. 4. (6) 7/10 LONGVIEW: This song is let down by a poor start, but the superb lyrics (and the vocals are great too) really set the song alight: “I’m feeling like a dog in heat, barred indoors from the summer sun”. The song is clearly about somebody with no motivation, a problem that is easy to relate to and the changing vibes of this song definitely make you want to get up and wave your arms. 5. (10) 6/10 WELCOME TO PARADISE: Ditto my comment to Chump really; good lyrics, vocals and reasonable music, but it simply isn’t overly exciting. Not bad, just not up the standard of some of the songs later on in the album. 6. (12) 6/10 PULLING TEETH: Highly popular once again, but the lyrics aren’t great and don’t really fit into the tune, which is again not that exciting. Having said that it is, like all the others, deep and meaningful in a way, and the music isn’t bad, just a bit same-ish for my liking. 7. (1) 10/10 BASKET CASE: Okay, this is where the album suddenly becomes top quality Green Day. An excellent intro with fabulous lyrics “Do you have the time to listen to me whine, about nothing and everything all at once. I am one of those, me-lo-dram-atic fools…” Highly popular, known by everyone and is likely to cause you severe damage through excessive head-banging and air guitar playing. The tune and rhythm vary, with plenty of “climaxes” for the more sexually orientated members of the community! 8. (3) 9/10 SHE: A simple name for a simple song, but a great follow up to Basket Case that means you just can’t sit down. A melodical intro followed by a steady build up and even though it doesn’t quite explode into the harder sounds of punk it is certainly a great song with magnificent lyrics: “are you locked up in a world that’s been planned out for you?” 9. (5) 8/10 SAFARIS ROOTS: Simple, repetitive lyrics, the type that I usually find really boring, but this song is far from that. While the lyrics and vocals are pretty poor, the intro is superb and inspirational and the music is definitely up to the high standard of the later half of the album. Another ‘get up and dance’ track and a very good follow-up to the previous two expert tracks. 10. (2) 9/10 WHEN I COME AROUND: By far the most melodical track on the album, but while lacking in punk it is not lacking in spunk; a hard hitting tune combined with harsh-reality lyrics about depression, drunkenness and drug-abuse and superb vocals. This song is well-known and very popular and almost guaranteed to inject some life into a party; widely acclaimed and deservedly so. 11. (8) 7/10 COMING CLEAN: Good, meaningful lyrics combined with a catchy tune; the same classic Green Day mix. However like some of the earlier songs it is not quite as uplifting (or at least energising) as it might be. Not a bad song by any means, but lacking in climaxes and not quite therefore a classic. 12. (13) 6/10 EMINIUS SLEEPING: As you can see from the rating this is far from my favourite song on the album. It suffers from much the same problems as the very first song, Burnout, in that it has an uninspiring tune and indistinct vocals. The lyrics are nothing to write home about, but it is still definitely worth listening too and the tune is quite good despite being slightly lacklustre. 13. (9) 7/10 IN THE END: A musically sound (no pun intended-honest) track combining the same old classic Green Day traits (ok I’ll say it yet again- a good mix of punk and melodies), but prevented from being a classic in its own right by some not-that-great lyrics that don’t seem to quite fit the music. Oh well. 14. (4) 9/10 F.O.D.: A fantastic final song that more than redeems the three tracks prior to it. The music is lively with plenty of my beloved climaxes and bizarre but strangely relatable to in places lyrics (bizarre- “let’s nuke the bridge we torched 2,000 times before”, relatable to- “something’s on my mind, it’s been for quite some time) in that they are, as with nearly all the lyrics throughout the album, about emotional baggage. Oh, and the vocals are good! Top-notch tune and three cheers for Green Day. (By the way I think FOD stands for F**k Off And Die- not very nice, but the lyrics are in the song although they aren’t too clear fortunately.
To give the album a final score I thought I’d add up all the ratings out of ten and divide by fourteen (the number of tracks) to get the average. It turns out to be 7.28/10, or 3.64/5. I rounded this up to four stars because overall the album is better than the average because the mixture of tunes and styles is for the most part pretty good, and in any case the album would probably be worth owning for the Basket Case, She, Safaris Roots, When I Come Around foursome of songs alone, so the others are really just a bonus. It’s a shame that not all the songs are up to the Basket Case standard, but then again that probably only serves to make it more unique, and special. Definitely 4/5 stars, and a good four stars at that!
~So???????~
Green Day have gone on to release Insomniac, Nimrod and Warning, which I personally believe have failed to live up to expectations for various reasons, but that’s another tale (you’ll just have to read future ops to find out)! They have become even more popular and well known and were along with Offspring and Rancid the core of the movement that changed Punk in style and in doing do changed it from an underground and hardcore movement to the popular music that it is today, with such groups as Blink 182 and Less Than Jake jumping on the bandwagon and making there own brands of punk-rock and punk-pop. The uniqueness of Green Day is that their music is neither of these and is, especially in the case of Dookie, an unusual brand of indie-punk that has widespread appeal without becoming overly mainstream and boring.
To sum up the Dookie contains some top-notch tracks that changed punk forever, most notably the classic Basket Case, but it is not all up to that high standard and the start of the album is slightly disappointing. It comes with lyrics and pictures of the group and contains some but not frequent or clear “bad” language and but only cost be £6.99 from an independent music store (Bionics in Maidstone). It is certainly worth that and is probably also worth the £10-12 that you would normally expect to pay for it. I would recommend it to anybody who does not have overly traditional tastes in music and to anybody who likes either indie or punk, or who just appreciates good music! Most fans are young people, but if you are you are young at heart then you should definitely enjoy and it is absolutely superb for parties.
For more information visit www.greenday.com (official site) or pmwww.cs.vu.nl/home/edoe/Green_Day (decent unofficial site).
PS: I wrote this opinion after over 10 hours in a car returning from the south of France so apologies if it is in any way sub-standard. Not to mention overly long and rambling. Someone shut me up- arghhhhh!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
this is the longest op i have ever chosen to read, this is because it was greenday THEY RULE, great op, very to the point but i have to admit i didn't read all of it, though i did all the tracks and well done your an amzing writer, wel done again, i love you :O) !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Punk had flirted with mainstream attention before--the Clash and Sex Pistols had hits--but ... more
didn't fully advance from the underground until this pure-punk 1994 album. In singing catchy, tight rock & roll tunes--including "Longview", "Welcome to Paradise...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Advantages: This CD reminds me that even *I* can write better songs. Disadvantages: I would rather open up a CD case to find fecal excrement inside than listen to this one.
Sarah_B 01.05.2002 ·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Dookie - Green Day
Advantages: This CD reminds me that even *I* can write better songs. Disadvantages: I would rather open up a CD case to find fecal excrement inside than listen to this one.
Sarah_B 01.05.2002 ·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Dookie - Green Day
Aug 31st, 2001
very helpful by (98%):
not helpful by (2%):
![River Is Wide, The [Remastered] - Forum (The)](http://imagesb.ciao.com/iuk/images/products/small/251/prod_small-6006251.jpg)
