3. Nimrod
Nimrod is a sprawling, diverse pop album that has no f*cking idea what it wants to be. And it's exciting as hell to hear the guys try to figure it out over the course of 18 songs. It may be forever brought down in the eyes of critics for producing the sappy, extremely overused acoustic ballad, "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)," but if you excise that two-and-a-half minutes from the track list, you're left with the most compelling pop album of the late 90s. Nimrod features the requisite, lightweight pop-punk tracks ("The Grouch," "Uptight," "Jinx"), but there's also a number of shuffling, mid-tempo numbers ("Redundant," "Walking Alone") and some genuinely kooky expeditions into horn-blaring whimsy ("King For a Day") and dark swagger ("Haushinka"). Most notably, however, is the concentrated effort to emphasize the kind of punchy power pop melodies that would shape their future releases. Maybe they were becoming more influenced by peers like Weezer and Fountains of Wayne, or maybe they just wanted to do whatever the hell they fancied on this album. Whatever the reasoning, it worked, and it firmly shifted the band away from the basic punk rock sound for good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ydpSVvXE9k