Back at it.
It's Monday and the weather is already looking up. I knew it. I'm heading out of town at the end of the week and am anticipating an interruption in my normal routine, as anyone would. To compensate, I plan on full, normal posts until then, possibly even doubles. We'll see. In the meantime I thought I would write about an album that was no doubt popular but may not have had the high profile it deserves. Maybe it does and I just don't know it. Probably. Who cares. Point is, I love it and it's really good. What album, you ask? Green Day's follow up to the diamond-selling Dookie, Insomniac.
Released in the fall of 1995, Insomniac saw the pop-punk trio from Berkley skewing slightly darker and harder in reaction to claims of selling out. Dookie had rightfully been a huge album - it's fantastic all the way through. Listening to it now, there's no question the band was destined for super-stardom, it just seemed like catchy songs at the time. While Dookie broke the band wide open, it saw a huge backlash for them over the widespread acclaim that inevitably follows anything underground getting exposure, and Green Day were no exception. Blasting out of the So-Cal scene, Green Day wrote fast and melodic tunes that spoke of discontent, boredom and paranoia, all packaged in insanely hooky pop songs. Basically a winning combination. So the pressure was on for them to repeat that success with their next effort. What we got, while awesome in my opinion, fell short of the lofty expectations at the time. In hindsight it is a really solid, punchy album, it just didn't have the miraculously high numbers Dookie did. Let's go in for a closer look, shall we?
Teasing audiences with the non-album single J.A.R., the band was already getting buzz for what would come with the new record. While J.A.R. was a great stand-alone single, it didn't really give proper preparation for the sound of Insomniac. It was more positive and in line with their previous album. When the next single, Geek Stink Breath, dropped, we got a much clearer vision for what was to come. The song was heavier, just two plodding chords repeating while the band angrily pushed through the song, frontman/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong singing about the effects of meth-amphetamine rotting out his teeth. To boot, the video for the song was a further stroke of un-pleasantry, with distorted video of the band playing while a friend of theirs has a real tooth extracted, complete with graphic footage. Thus began the angrier, more nihilistic phase of the band's career.
Suitably, the opening lines of the album were the bleak "Stranded, lost inside myself. My own worst friend and my own closest enemy" from Armatage Shanks. Setting the tone for the rest of the album, the hopeless lyrics were set to the dry, buzzsaw guitar hooks that would fill the 32 minute onslaught. It's a theme of nihilism packaged in aggro-pop, Armstrong bleating the lyrics along with aggressively played songs that have killer hooks in them. At times it seems as though the music could simply blow out the speakers and overpower the source, like in the furious Stuart & The Ave. There's an opening chord, then a plump and juicy bass lick, followed by drums and chords blasting back in so hard it seems loud no matter the volume. Singing just a hair harder and unhappier than he would anywhere else in his career, it seems, Armstrong sings of rejection and disappointment, almost as an anticipatory reaction to claims of selling out, the idea being he would reject his accusers before they could hurl claim at him. Indeed, the simplistic 86 paints this picture easily, wailing "There's no return from eighty-six, don't even try" against intense and undeniably catchy hooks. Fittingly, his most self-loathing and scathing attacks on himself serve as some of the catchiest on the album, as heard in No Pride. In it, Armstrong sings "Well I am just a mutt and nowhere is my home, where dignity's a landmine in the school of lost hope." In the chorus he announces "Honor's gonna knock you down before your chance to stand up and fight." It's bleak and depressing but incredibly well written stuff, the refrain building on a clever twist of chord structure that seems to keep the melody climbing despite its rise and fall.
Its interesting to see the band playing with such fervor, looking back now from their re-formatting as arena-playing rock-opera composers. Now they write suites about the youth in suburbia and the effects of war on the younger generations. This album, though, shows them as lashing out at the world that gave rise to their success and freedom to write what they pleased. Granted this was fifteen years ago and they had a little more piss and vinegar in them than they do now. Still it is an interesting look into what claims of fakery and selling out can do to musicians, as the band was clearly trying to strike back against those claims with this album. That being said, we shouldn't dismiss Insomniac as a furious diatribe - there are some great songs here that sound great today, despite their aggresive nature. Indeed, I decided on this album for today's post due to rediscovering the album and being surprised how well it holds up. I was just surprised to hear how angry they were at the time. Time and growth seems to have smoothed the edges for the group, though, and their writing has only gotten better. They're still going strong today, making great music. Give a listen and see where they've grown from, it's pretty fascinating.
It's Monday and the weather is already looking up. I knew it. I'm heading out of town at the end of the week and am anticipating an interruption in my normal routine, as anyone would. To compensate, I plan on full, normal posts until then, possibly even doubles. We'll see. In the meantime I thought I would write about an album that was no doubt popular but may not have had the high profile it deserves. Maybe it does and I just don't know it. Probably. Who cares. Point is, I love it and it's really good. What album, you ask? Green Day's follow up to the diamond-selling Dookie, Insomniac.
Teasing audiences with the non-album single J.A.R., the band was already getting buzz for what would come with the new record. While J.A.R. was a great stand-alone single, it didn't really give proper preparation for the sound of Insomniac. It was more positive and in line with their previous album. When the next single, Geek Stink Breath, dropped, we got a much clearer vision for what was to come. The song was heavier, just two plodding chords repeating while the band angrily pushed through the song, frontman/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong singing about the effects of meth-amphetamine rotting out his teeth. To boot, the video for the song was a further stroke of un-pleasantry, with distorted video of the band playing while a friend of theirs has a real tooth extracted, complete with graphic footage. Thus began the angrier, more nihilistic phase of the band's career.
