Album Reviews

This most popular of Green Day albums, a swell kiss off to Bush and his rogue administration is now so old it’s grown whiskers, but it hasn’t lost any of its punch. In fact, cut to wax it intensifies into a category five musical and political hurricane.

Look the CD was quite good. This was not some back room punk job: it was mostly recorded at Ocean Way, with some tracking done at Capitol by a flock of assistant engineers, with Chris-Lord-Alge mixing and Ted Jensen mastering at Sterling.


This most popular of Green Day albums, a swell kiss off to Bush and his rogue administration is now so old it’s grown whiskers, but it hasn’t lost any of its punch. In fact, cut to wax it intensifies into a category five musical and political hurricane.

Look the CD was quite good. This was not some back room punk job: it was mostly recorded at Ocean Way, with some tracking done at Capitol by a flock of assistant engineers, with Chris-Lord-Alge mixing and Ted Jensen mastering at Sterling.

Part of the reason this record resonated with the public was the great recording. It popped from the speakers or earbuds or whatever while most rock recordings today poop from speakers. What a drum sound they managed on this disc! It’s old school high-gloss high fidelity record making and it works. Good sound matters dammit.

Of course the music comes first and this set distills Green Day’s punk ethos, adding heavy dosages of classic rock and rock opera. You can hear Ziggy Stardust all over the mini-epic “Jesus of Suburbia,” not to mention Bowie’s “All the Young Dudes.” The “Dearly Beloved,” section of “Jesus of Suburbia” has a familiar ring I can’t distill and then “Tales of Another Broken Home” reprises Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire,” even dangling the lyric “….and I walked this line,” in front of paying customers. “Are We The Waiting” is an imaginative reworking of Peter Gabriel’s “Biko.” These guys have big record collections and they don’t mind dipping, and neither do I.

It’s done lovingly and subtly so oldsters will enjoy singing “So where were the spiders!...” “I stepped into a burning ring of fire,” and “Biko, because Biko,” while the less tuned in young will find the hammering licks, melodic turns and hitched drum parts original.

“Boulevard of Broken Dreams” may be the most affecting lyric Billie Joe Armstrong has ever written and the music and production, especially the “lonely” electric guitar shading, suit them to a “T.” No wonder it was a hit, driving the CD to big sales.

The well made double LP package, with glossy folded lyric sheet included, will remind you of why records were once king, and treasured by their buyers and why CDs were the beginning of the slippery slope to downloaded MP3 files. Sonically, I have to tell you that the CD gives the LP a run for the money, creating more of a trade-off than one format being better than the other (I don’t like writing that, but it’s true), but in the end the LP’s added warmth, three dimensionality and subtlety make for more enjoyable deep listening. That said, the CD does beat the LP set dynamically (in some ways) by a hair and the drums “pop” somewhat better. However, while the CD’s drums sound more dynamic, they sound more “cardboardy” and the cymbals tend to flatten and “squash” dynamically though they are brighter and somewhat more cleanly defined.

When I want to hear this great set, it will be on the double vinyl (hardly surprising). A recommended jolt to the system.