Awful Album Reviews #8: Green Day - Dookie

Hello music fans, and welcome back to another post! I know I said my next post would be something 2018-related, and that post is currently on the assembly line and should be finished eventually. But it's been two weeks since I last posted anything, so I'm just doing this because I just wanted to leave something in here while I continue working on my 2018 post (and because I love this album). So let's do this!



INTRODUCTION

Dookie is the third studio album by rock band Green Day, released on February 1, 1994, and the album that propelled them to success. This Rob Cavallo-produced record received loads of critical acclaim along with a Grammy, and has sold over twenty million copies around the world, the most for a Green Day album. Five hit singles spawned out of this album, which were, in order, "Longview", a re-recorded version of "Welcome to Paradise" from Kerplunk, "Basket Case", "When I Come Around", and "She". All five of these songs reached the top ten on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart, with "Longview", "Basket Case", and "When I Come Around" being number one hits on that chart.



REVIEW

This album is a big portion of why Green Day has come to be one of my favorite bands. When you think of Green Day, you might think of them as being big in the alternative rock scene because of songs like "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "Wake Me Up When September Ends", and "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)". But when I think of Green Day, one of the first words that pops into my head is punk. I think Green Day is a great punk rock band. They have songs like "Minority" and "American Idiot" that have sort of a cool punk-ish vibe to it, but they don't beat anything on this album. Excluding stuff from The Offspring and maybe Lit and Bad Religion, this is punk music at its best. I can't put it any other way. It's no surprise that this record and The Offspring's Smash played a big part in making punk music go mainstream in the mid-90s, because it's very hard to top.

There's many things that make this album a good punk record. I've listened to enough punk albums to know what punk is supposed to sound like, and I can immediately tell that this is one of them. First of all, not every rock singer can contribute to a good punk album in a good way. But Billie Joe Armstrong is one of them. His vocals are great throughout the whole thing. He is also the only guitarist in Green Day, so I will praise him for the powerful power chords that help shape the songs on this album. This also proves why Mike Dirnt is one of my favorite rock bassists, because his contributions on the bass go along with the album perfectly. Another thing I think makes this album truly punk is the drums, so I will give Tre Cool lots of props for that. I'm not paying attention to the lyrics of this album for every second of it, but what I've heard sounds interesting considering how good of a songwriter Billie Joe is. I mean, he released his first record when he was 5, so you can't really go wrong with him. As for everything else, this album was produced well, so thanks to Rob Cavallo for that. I also like how there aren't any songs over four minutes on this album, and although there are only 15 songs on it it's only 38 minutes long. It's a characteristic of a lot of punk albums that I've come to notice over time. So yeah, I think this really shows the punk side of Green Day in a great way. When you hear an style of album you'd usually hear from a more classic band like Bad Religion or NOFX from a more modern band like Green Day, that's just cool to me. I enjoyed that a lot. Not much else to say, so let's review each track!



TRACK-BY-TRACK REVIEWS

1. "Burnout"
Rating: 9.5/10
Comments: This song has a good punk feel to it that I'm definitely used to hearing by now. That may sound like a bad thing but it's really not.

2. "Having A Blast"
Rating: 10/10
Comments: I wish Green Day made way more songs like this. This sounds very good. The guitars work well with the song, which I always love hearing.

3. "Chump"
Rating: 9.5/10
Comments: It could have slightly more to it, but the punk vibes are real here, and I always love punk vibes.

4. "Longview"
Rating: 9.5/10
Comments: This is one of the weaker singles off the album to me, but I still really enjoy it. The lyrics are interesting, so listening to this song can be like listening to an audio-short story. I enjoy that.

5. "Welcome to Paradise"
Rating: 10/10
Comments: I haven't heard the original version of this song before, but this song is just so good. I'm not sure why it wasn't one of my first Green Day songs because it is in the upper ranks of their best songs. I will never turn down an opportunity to listen to this because every aspect of it is up there in the ranks.

6. "Pulling Teeth"
Rating: 9/10
Comments: This is a little different than the first five tracks on the album, but it's still fun to hear. I wouldn't call it true punk but it is true good music.

7. "Basket Case"
Rating: 10/10
Comments: This is everything I love about punk all in one song. It's so hugely acclaimed by critics for a reason. And if I don't think that this masterpiece is the best song off the album, it has to be on a pretty good one.

8. "She"
Rating: 10/10
Comments: That surging bass at the beginning is a perfect way to slam on the gas pedal and make this song go the way it needs to. I love it. adds to rock playlist

9. "Sassafras Roots"
Rating: 9.5/10
Comments: There's a lot of energy in this song and I always love to hear that. It goes hard and I love songs that go hard. A score for me.

10. "When I Come Around"
Rating: 9.5/10
Comments: This is kind of a more chill song than most of what's on the album, but it does work for me. I was pretty into it for a while after I first heard it, and while it's not as good now, I'm still satisfied with how big of a hit it was.

11. "Coming Clean"
Rating: 9.5/10
Comments: This song is short but every second is useful. Very good punk song here.

12. "Emenius Sleepus"
Rating: 9.5/10
Comments: Bassist Mike Dirnt wrote this song, which was interesting to listen to. I like his songwriting and want to hear more now.

13. "In the End"
Rating: 9.5/10
Comments: This is obviously not better than the Linkin Park song of the same title, but I'm getting some massive Bad Religion vibes from this song, which is fun to hear from a band like Green Day.

14. "F.O.D."
Rating: 9/10
Comments: I had to turn my earbuds up a bit to hear what was going on in the first half, so when it broke in it scared me a little. But when it does break in it sounds great and like the rest of the album.

15. "All By Myself"
Rating: N/A
Comments: Unlike the rest of the album, this song is a hidden track performed by drummer Tre Cool, so it was fun to hear a change. But it's a hidden track on the CD version, so it's not really an actual song that I'll rate.



ALBUM RANKDOWN

Ugh...I really just don't want to do this for this album just because with all of the great songs on it, it would actually be a difficult task. Let's just say that my top 3, in order, are "Welcome to Paradise", "Basket Case", and "Having A Blast".



OVERALL ALBUM SCORE

134/140 = 9.57/10 = 0.957 = 95.7%



FINAL WORDS

I C O N Y. That is this album in one word. Everything about it shines and really shows how great of a band Green Day is. If you are curious to hear what punk music sounds like but have no idea where to begin, this is a perfect place, especially if your taste is more mainstream-oriented. If you like pop music that can often get wild, you will love this album, I promise. If it sounds cool, then you can listen to it on Spotify here or on YouTube here.

So that wraps up this awful album review! Thank you to everyone who read it, and I'll see you next time hopefully with that 2018 post I need to finish!