Anyone still curious as to why this So-Cal punk band's scatalogically titled 1994 album is so widely revered needs only to look at the track list. Dookie was a goddamn hit machine: "Longview," "Basket Case," "When I Come Around," and "She" all made Dookie a must-own for those who were growing a little weary about the exceptional seriousness of the grunge movement. Disillusion and malaise never sounded so sprightly. Not only that, but Billie Joe Armstrong and crew are at their effortless best on each and every song, pulling off track after track of hook-laden, perfectly-paced magic. While all the attention focused on the tight production and off-color references to genitalia, it should be noted that Armstrong wrote some surprisingly insightful lyrics. "Coming Clean," though sounding like typical teen bitterness, is actually detailing a personal battle with Armstrong's own sexuality, while "In the End" tackles his feelings of abandonment and his mother's relationship with her new husband. But at its core, Dookie is just a fast, lively, comical, endlessly entertaining collection of pop-punk in its truest form. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42BBdzzgPNM
1. American Idiot
There will always be people who refuse to believe that this version of Green Day is as important as the version that wrote and recorded Dookie. They will go to their graves deriding American Idiot for taking too big a leap from the band's roots. And that's okay. What happened to those unambitious kids who just wanted to get stoned and whack it? Well, those kids grew the hell up. And they did so by sinking their teeth into a thick slice of arena rock. Genre notwithstanding, this is the best Green Day has ever sounded. Strip away the pageantry and dated references to George W. Bush, forget the fact that a lot of the album follows a character called, ahem, Jesus of Suburbia, and just listen. Listen to that melody in "Extraordinary Girl." Open up your earholes to the history lesson on punk music that is "Homecoming." And sure, relish the oddly Nimrod-esque inclusion of "Letter Bomb." That's the sound of a fantastic album. It's easy to understand why some didn't enjoy it, and it's the same reasons Nimrod and Warning had their own detractors: This wasn't the Green Day we were used to. Green Day didn't write over-the-top, riff-heavy, five-part suites about the government. Green Day didn't embrace the stylings of Boston and The Who. Green Day didn't rock this way, they rocked that way. But that's nonsense. You can hate the vague political metaphors. You can hate the fact that this album spawned its own, horrifyingly cheesy Broadway show. You can even hate the fact that American Idiot doesn't sound enough like Dookie. But you have to respect this kind of craftsmanship and the hour of near-perfect rock music it produced. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA8v3B1SxR0
