10 2000s Albums That Are A Lot Better Than You Remember
7. Warning - Green Day
The turn of the century was not really a fun time to be Green Day. Though they were about to pull off one of the biggest comebacks of the modern age with American Idiot, the idea of that going off without a hitch seemed like a pipedream coming from the guys who's last hit was Good Riddance. Even though Warning should have been the nail in the band's coffin, it turned out to be one of their most adventurous albums yet.
Because let's face it, what's the most punk rock thing you can do after going every which way on Nimrod? Simple: Abandon punk altogether and make a folk record. Pulling influences from the likes of the Kinks and Bob Dylan, Billie Joe Armstrong's writing on here feels more suited to the classic rock of old, as he aims to put his sophomoric tales on the same level as his heroes.
He very nearly succeeds too, with the title track owing a bit too much to the Kinks' Picture Book and songs like Hold On and Waiting having the same power pop swagger that you would find from the sugary variety of the '60s revolution. Though Minority was one of the only major hits from this record, it did end up being the lynchpin for what would come later in terms of raw political tracks. Warning might not be everyone's favorite Green Day record, but if this hadn't worked out, we probably wouldn't have even gotten American Idiot at all.