Green Day: Ranking Their Albums From Worst To Best

7. Kerplunk

Green Day's second full-length album rallies behind an unexpected self-assuredness that largely masks the bit of flab it carries around the middle. (It's like Robert Downey Jr. with a beer belly.) So although Kerplunk could have used a little extra TLC from behind the soundboard, there's an endearing quality to the messy, just-go-with-it bounciness of the album that elevates it to a higher level. Even more so than their previous album, the guys have a youthful effervescence that, despite keeping things almost too light at times (particularly in the album ending "Words I Might Have Ate" and the cringe-inducing joke country song "Dominated Love Slave"), is a wonderful, goofy reminder that there was a time when Billie Joe Armstrong didn't take himself seriously, whatsoever. There's also a slight wistfulness to even the most chugging tracks on Kerplunk, which makes a lot of the album sound more impactful, even if there's not a whole going on beyond the melodies. And I think that's partly what's tricked some of the band's most rigid fans from noticing that this album is a lot of fun, yes, but it's nowhere near the untouchable level they'd like to think. As a side note, for anyone who likes to claim this era in the band's history as their "most punk," you should re-listen to that guitar solo in "One For the Razorbacks." That's the sound they'd go back to in fits and spurts while recording ¡Uno! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG-QdIrgh9Q