Kerplunk - Green Day > Reviews > Dominated Love Slave

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Some strong music has here been created, the talent of Green Day is highly apparent .
Disadvantages:	The production is poor, this therefore may put some listeners off .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Green Day is an American rock band that has been active now since 1987. The bands debut release came in 1990 in the form of '39/Smooth', 'Kerplunk' was the bands difficult second album and emerged in the January of 1992. Released through Lookout Records, this album is a far cry from the finely produced Green Day music of today; the recording is tinny and it's almost like listening to an entirely different band. Sixteen tracks are included here, the album runs for a total of 42 minutes and comes to its close with a cover of the classic 'My Generation' which was of course originally written by Pete Townshend and recorded by The Who for the bands first album of 'My Generation'.

An interesting inclusion on this 'Kerplunk' album is that of the early recording of 'Welcome to Paradise' which later went on to feature on Green Day's commercially successful breakthrough album 'Dookie'. 'Welcome to Paradise' was released successfully as a single off the back of the successful 'Dookie' album, and even given the poor production of this 'Kerplunk' release it still sounded good here. The makings of the track were already there, the melody was already formed and the only thing that was lacking was a high quality recording.

Throughout this 'Kerplunk' album is sounds as though the bands drummer Tre Cool is beating on bean cans, the drums really don't sound up to much here and this is probably the weakest quality of this album. The music is well structured, it's simple and yet it's also extremely effective. Already the bands killer guitar hooks can definitely be heard here, the vocals of Billie Joe Armstrong are extremely nasal but then again this is something that is still true even now; it's just the way he sings. The guitar riff to 'Private Ale' is I feel incredibly powerful, it's as strong as the band has ever recorded in fact and listening to this one is therefore greatly enjoyable. The music of Green Day has never been particularly complex, the bands strength is not in producing music that is technically profound but instead in creating music that is greatly catchy and terrific fun to sing and dance along to.

One track from this album that I feel definitely deserves a mention is that of 'Dominated Love Slave'. Not your typical Green Day song, the music of the band here takes quite a country form and this one therefore breaks this 'Kerplunk' album up nicely. It's an interesting piece of music I feel, far different to anything the band had ever done before and definitely a far cry from the music that this band has created since. The lyrical content of this track isn't to be taken seriously; this track offers the album a bit of light relief and is put together with the great sense of humour that Green Day has always possessed as a band. 'Dominated Love Slave' is an incredibly fun track, due to the fact that it is so different to anything else on this album it really does stand out and this in my opinion is certainly no bad thing. This one definitely deserves to be listened to, the lyrics are highly amusing and for that reason I definitely recommend seeking this one out even if you do decide to pass on listening to the rest of this 'Kerplunk' album.

When this album was originally released on vinyl it was intended as a twelve track album, 'Kerplunk' therefore came to its close with 'Words I Might Have Ate'; an additional four tracks were added when the album transitioned to CD and cassette however and this is the reason that the album comes to a close with the cover track of The Who's 'My Generation'. The final four tracks of this release are from the bands 'Sweet Children' EP which was recorded in 1990 and released through the now defunct independent record label Skene! Records. 'Words I Might Have Ate' is a strong track I feel, one that is more than capable of closing an album. The track is only two and a half minutes long; it's incredibly catchy however and is an absolutely brilliant piece of music to listen to. The song is well structured, the guitars come across strongly here and the vocals of Billie Joe Armstrong also sound excellent. The production values are not strong here and yet there is something distinctly professional sounding about this track. This is a simple track, the vocals are crisp and clear however and everything about the track just seems to work. On this album the low production values seem to suit the bands sound brilliantly, only on a few tracks here do you ever feel that the roughness of the recording detracts from the overall quality of the 'Kerplunk' album as a whole.

With the final four tracks of this release a change in sound can definitely here be heard. The first twelve tracks are rough and sound extremely low budget, with the tracks that were originally included on the 'Sweet Children' EP however the quality is even weaker. For the final four tracks of this album the volume level seems to drop off and you therefore have to turn the music up in order to hear it all properly. The graininess of the recording is particularly apparent on the tracks of 'Sweet Children' and 'Best Thing In Town', there are times when I find it difficult to listen to 'Best Thing In Town' in fact. A hissing sound can at times be heard here, it's difficult to put up with and sometimes the vocals fade away to an almost inaudible volume. 'Strangleland' is a lot better produced I feel and sounds far clearer than any of the other three that are included here as 'bonus' offerings. The problem with 'Strangleland' is that even though the recording is a lot clearer, the vocals are poorly sung and often in fact Billie Joe Armstrong can be heard here to go completely out of key.

'My Generation' is I feel a decent closing track for this 'Kerplunk' album, it's perhaps not as strong as the intended closing track of 'Words I Might Have Ate' and yet still it works well. For the most part here the band sticks very much to the script of the original The Who recording of this one, little change has been made here and only slight tweaks and changes can be heard. The recording is quite poor and yet this adds atmosphere to the cover, 'My Generation' is pulled off well by Green Day here and both the main and the backing vocals are sung incredibly well. The cover is fast, frantic and come to a perfect climax. The punk energy of Green Day can be heard coming through strongly here, something that is in fact true of this 'Kerplunk' album as a whole. You can tell throughout this release that the three members of Green Day have a strong grounding in the genre of punk rock, the attitudes of the bands three members scream punk rock and so too in fact does the low budget recording of this 'Kerplunk' album. Green Day was a fresh faced punk rock band back when this album was recorded, something that is highly apparent from start to finish throughout the sixteen tracks that are here included on this album.

For those that have only got into the music of Green Day in recent years through albums such as those of 'Warning' and 'American Idiot' then this early album may come as quite a shock. Green Day has not always been a huge mainstream rock band, there was a time when Green Day recorded low budget albums such as this and my opinion is that the band was all the better for it. I'm not at all a fan of the recent works of Green Day, I do however have a massive love for the bands albums of the past such as 'Insomniac', 'Dookie' and this 'Kerplunk' album also. 'Kerplunk' is a strong album I feel, sixteen tracks are included here and whilst the recording is not of a particularly high quality the music is most certainly excellent to listen to. For those with an appreciation for punk rock music then I highly recommend giving this album a listen, if you're a fan of Green Day and have yet to hear this album then it may well be worth investing in this also. 'Kerplunk' is by no means perfect, this album has some serious flaws and yet I personally find the sound created here to be hugely appealing. Green Day shows some strong signs of what was to come here, the 'Kerplunk' album is full of promise and this band did of course go on to sell millions of records worldwide.