Dookie - Green Day > Reviews > Yeah, well at least they admitted it

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Lacking inspiration
Lyrics	Mediocre
Quality and consistency of tracks	One hit and lots of B-sides
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Unmemorable
Value for Money	Poor

Advantages:	Basket Case
Disadvantages:	Everything else, seriously

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

In the first half of the 1990s, a band emerged that would bring back a sound not heard since the late 1970s, they would reintroduce the world to a sound that was reminiscent of the rock emerging from the UK at that period, which was dubbed 'punk'. Their music was based around fast and loud guitars, and their lyrics meaningful. But that's enough about Rage Against The Machine for today, I'm supposed to be reviewing Green Day here.

Never has an album ever been so aptly titled than Dookie, the band's third long player and first on Reprise, the major label that snapped them up on some sort of drunken binge or something, because the band's repertoire at this point, even after 2 albums,countless EPs and the music that would go towards this record, only had a handful of songs that could even be classed as likeable. The rest of their CV consisted of songs summed up perfectly by singer Billie Joe Armstrong in this records best song, Basket Case, in the line "Do you have the time/to listen to me whine" because quite frankly that's all their songs were, generic 3-chord rock backing a chubby kid with a bad haircut whining. I know a lot of people are probably thinking to themselves that this is going to just be a rant from someone who doesn't like the band, but the simple fact is that Dookie, which in case you didn't gather is another expression used for faeces, is easily Green Day's worst album on Reprise(it would take some work to out-bad their outright debut album), worse even than the Levellers-esque Warning and their autobiographical recent debacle, American Idiot put together, mainly because they at least tried something different. Granted they done it badly, but they deserve more credit than this crap.

Green Day consist of singer/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and Drummer Frank Edwin Wright the third, who prefers to be called 'Tre Cool', but personally I'm not one who likes heeding to the requests of one of the biggest nobs in music history, so Frank it is.

Begining with a line that summed up my attitude towards the record the longer it went on("I declare I don't care no more"), Dookie is one of the most excruciating, yet at the same time outright boring records you could ever try to listen to. It was released in 1994, and I'm sure many a person will spring to it's defence on this ground, stating that at the time it was a new sound, which is actually crap when you take into account that bands like NoFX and Rancid had been cutting around for quite a while, and Green Day are basically a diluted to the point of no unique flavour for consumption of the masses. Now I'll come clean and admit that I hate the entire 'Neo-Punk' movement, but the fact is that to try and insinuate that Green Day started it is just stupid, it's like trying to say The Damned started Punk in the first place because they were the first band to actually release a record, in fact it's dumber, NoFX's White Trash,Two Heebs and a Bean outdates this by a couple of years and is of a similar, ie 3-chord wonder, sound, yet is much better.

Starting with the instantly forgettable Burnout and ending with the contemptible hidden track All By Myself, this album is almost entireley unlistenable to for anyone who actually likes their music remotely intelligent, with any such thing as memorable music or lyrics. On this stain of a record, Green Day basically come off as the bastard child of Skate Punk and Emo, a thought that should make any self-respecting human being shudder. Think Good Charlotte but not as funny to laugh at.

It's hard to even pick a starting point, because so much of the album just sounds identical. To get it out of the way, I'll begin proceedings with what's good about the record. I was actually sold this record, and basically the entire neo-punk movement, by the song Basket Case, which as far as I can tell bears no relation to the wonderful Frank Henenlotter movie, but is instead a lyrically trite(it is Green Day) song, that's redeemed by actually having a catchy guitar hook that actually stays with you for more than the song's duration. By no means is the song a classic by anyone's standards, but the fact is that on this record of utter shame, you have to take your victories where you can get them.

The rest of the record, Burnout,Having A Blast,Chump,Longview,Welcome to Paradise,Pulling Teeth,She,Sassafras Roots,When I Come Around,Coming Clean,Emenius Sleepus,In The End,F.O.D and All By Myself, can be summed up perfectly in the words 'dull' and 'bad'. Sure there is some attempts at making distinctively different tracks, with slower paced songs like When I Come Around and She, but they are basically just the same sort of repetitive drivel played slower. Longview gives the listener the worst of both worlds by having a dreary and slow sound for the verses, but coming into the same generic pop-punk sound for the chorus.

Actually, in fairness, All By Myself provides a difference in tone by being done on an accoustic guitar, something people who crucified the band for using such instruments on Warning seem to have forgotten. It's a song about wanking, which is quite fitting because it's a pile of wank. For those wondering, Welcome to Paradise is the same song from the last album, it's too similar to even tell if it's a different version, and it still sounds like the Powerpuff Girls theme tune played by a bad pop-punk band.

It may seem like I'm not saying all that much about the music, but the fact is, there isn't much to say, musically the album is neither inventive,interesting or remotely exciting, and can truly be summed up by simply imagining the most generic and worthless Pop-Punk sound and removing most of the catchy hooks, and lyrically it could have been penned by a 12 year old. A 12 year old who doesn't go to school.

While I can understand that in 1994 this maybe seemed new for about 20 minutes, songs about masturbation, being lazy, longing for girls and so on really can't do it for me unless there is something unique and likeable about them. None of Green Day's lyrics, outside of the ones I've already quoted, are memorable, the band instead opting to fill their songs with as many unnecessary swearwords as possible in some sort of attempt at being alternative or 'edgy'(in fairness, this isn't something that Green Day were exclusively guilty of in the 90s) and it just makes for one hell of a boring record to my ears.

I realise I'm probably going to get a lot of stick for my scoring of this album, but I do genuinely feel it is one of the worst records I've ever had the displeasure of not only hearing, but actually until recently, owning. I do genuinely feel it's a step back from Kerplunk, and as I say, Green Day's worst record on Reprise. Insomniac, the follow up wasn't great, but it at least had some sort of edge to it's guitar, Nimrod was very hit and miss, but at least it had more than one hit and Warning...well it wasn't this bad.

While I know they all already own it, I honestly wouldn't recommend this album to anyone, not even Green Day fans. It's a repetitive slice of utter aural bile that you have to wonder how it ever got as far as it did. I can almost assure everyone that they know someone who owns this CD, and I would also hazard a guess that it's the worst one in their collection(unless they own the group's debut album of course). For one of the only times in history, I agree with Green Day: this record is S.H.I.T...