The dusty album review
i didn’t post any new journal entries last week because we had to due research on an album and write about that instead. i chose Daft Punk Discovery. as a result, i’ve been listening to daft punk like crazy over the past week. anyways, journal entries return:
Listen to an album that you haven’t listened to in the longest time and comment.
Dookie was probably the first album that I ever listened to in its entirety. This was back in ’94 when I still lived in West PA. As a fifth grader, this clearly was not an album that (1) I had the money to purchase or (2) that my parents would ever allow me to get a copy of. But, that’s the reason you go to your friend’s house anyways, not because you like them, because their parents let you do a small subset of the things that your parents don’t allow you to do. When this is extrapolated out to all of your friends in school and all of your neighborhood chums (some of which you may or may not be friends with but you remain cordial for this very reason), you can pretty much get away with anything you want as long as you know the proper place and time to do it. And, with all that infinite freedom, I chose to listen to Green Day…….
It’s been a long time since I heard that album for a plethora of reasons. Like I said before, I didn’t own the album nor did I have money to get a copy as a child. By the time I was old enough to make money, I was already enjoying the wonders of Audio Galaxy (Napster sucked – Audio Galaxy was the champ) and a 32mb Rio600 mp3 player (it held a solid 8 songs or so and the battery lasted about an hour ((that’s two play throughs!))), so I really never bought CDs. I kinda skipped the whole music on a physical medium thing. Furthermore, during that same time, Green Day had hit a lull after Insomniac and I just can’t consciously support the terrible albums they’ve been putting out ever since. Regardless, I was still a pretty big fan and I had always heard their live shows were awesome, so I decided to check one out…….wow, it was bad. It ranks number two on my list of worst sets ever right after Tommy Two Tone for a multiple of reasons. I’ll spare you and sum it up by saying there was a three minute section where Billie Joe mimicked (hopefully, he was mimicking) masturbating on stage while moaning into the microphone. That’s when I realized that as an 18 year old adolescent I was more mature then many people twice my age (Billie Joe was 32 at the time).
Anywho, that just amplified my already growing fear that Green Day was a solid decade past their prime and I haven’t been a super huge fan ever since…..
After taking another listen to the album, I realized that I had no idea what anything on the album was talking about when I was 9. That was probably for the best. I wouldn’t be the charming, young gentlemen that I am today if I had actually taken any of the lyrics on that album to heart. Even so, that album still rocks. It is definitely one of the best punk albums of all time. Of course, every Johnny Rotten out there will instantly cry: “GREEN DAY IS NOT PUNK.” Then, they’ll immediately attempt to shank me. After skillfully blocking karate-kid style, I would inform all still conscious enough to comprehend that if you play 1-IV-V power chords and your lead singer sucks: “News flash – you’re a punk band.”
In conclusion, the album rocks, “When I Come Around” will continue to be one of my favorite songs of all time, I can’t wait for the new Major Lazer album to come out, Philadelphia weather sucks, I’m still writing while this is due in 4 minutes, and Green Day should really cease being a band.
