Sara's Review of Nimrod

And general commentary on GREEN DAY

I've now listened to Nimrod enough that I think I'm qualified to give my opinion of it. It has a very different sound than any of the other Green Day albums (you can check out my reviews of the other albums). It's closer to Insomniac than any of the other four, but in general it's more substantial. It's the same voice and the same general tunes, but it has a little twist... there's even a harmonica solo in there (please don't be reminded of alanis). My favorite song so far is "Redundant."


Good Points: Well, it's Green Day and that ought to be enough. But otherwise, I think the songs all sound very different, which is a quality many have complained that Green Day albums do not possess.


Weak Points: It's a great album, but I prefer the old Green Day. Very sweet and romantic... all songs about girls he can't have. Or ones that he can have but are driving him nuts. Nimrod has some of that, but not as much as the earlier albums, and it's not as obvious. We all know what "When I Come Around" is about, but I have to check the lyrics to see what these songs are about. Of course, intelligible lyrics is a quality I always admired in Green Day albums, so maybe I just need to get used to it.
Here is a more in-depth look at all the songs in Nimrod


Prediction: I think Nimrod will do well, but not as well as Dookie. The songs are pretty catchy, but it just doesn't have the same quality as their first hit album did. But considering that many of the songs are kind of similar to "Longview" (their first hit single) I might be proved wrong. Hey, I'd LOVE to see Green Day get popular again.

Now let me give you a quote by Billie Joe:
"I sound like an Englishman impersonating an American impersonating an Englishman."
Doesn't he just rock for saying that???


But Green Day just rocks in general. Especially BJ. And I think much of their appeal is BJ's english-american singing voice. I'm partially using this page to post a few pics of Green Day. I hope I'm allowed to do that... I just want to give a proper tribute to Green Day...

Other Reviews

Now that you have read my review of Nimrod, here are my reviews of the other Green Day albums:
Insomniac:
Better than people say. I mean, this album got bashed way more than it deserved. It had an awesome song called "Walking Contradiction" and also "Geek Stink Breath" and a bunch of other greats. Plus "Brainstew" is almost a classic... anybody can recognize that cool beat. It's too short though, and they curse a lot more than they need to. For instance, in all their other albums there's one song where they reely start to swear (like "Longview"), and the rest of the songs are normal. Insomniac is the opposite: there is maybe one or two songs that can be played on the radio without editing. But it's still classic Green Day and a great album.

Dookie:
The best of the albums. Not by a lot though. It contains my favorite Green Day song of all time, "When I Come Around," and a lot of other good stuff. It's one of the few albums where I can truly say that EVERY song is good. It's also one of the few albums that I have on tape and on CD. I bought it when I didn't even have a CD player and I was buying about one tape per year. I only had this crummy tape player and I played it over and over until "She" got completely shredded. The funny thing is, in all that time I never discovered the hidden song. I think everyone should be able to appreciate Dookie, even hardcore anti-alternatives. And NO, it is NOT 14 tracks of the same song.... I'd say this is the number one album responsible for getting me hooked on alternative music.

Kerplunk:
Very similar to Dookie. It has the tremendous song "80," which i now realize is named for Billie Joe's wife Adrienne. The songs are all very sweet and youthful. The opening song "2000 Light Years Away" reely grabbed me (Trivia: What's a malakite? Write me with the answer). The songs on this album are probably the most romantic. Green Day is still young enough to be sappy, but old enough to come up with some great tunes. Plus the CD contains the story of Laurie L, a real riot. The album was an underground hit.

1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours:
This one is a compilation of Green Day's earliest stuff. It's hard to believe that they were just kids when they did this music. This album contains the song "Green Day," which doesn't give you ANY clue whatsoever of how they got their name (but I happen to know it has to do with drugs). It also has an incredible song called "Road to Pasqualaqua" (which can vie with "When I Come Around" for best song). It's the longest Green Day album, and probably the most immature; I've heard that "Why Do You Want Him?" is one of the first songs BJ ever wrote. The songs at the end all kind of sound similar and are all about girls, but the beginning of the album is pretty great. Guys, it's a perfect album to get your girlfriend for Valentine's day or some similar holiday (if she's a fan, that is).

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