Green Day - Dookie

[Drain Bramaged]

Green Day Dookie

Okay, this album's already been reviewed to death but I thought it necessary for me to do this, as it's possibly one of the greatest album's I've ever listened to. I think the best way for my to do this would be track by track so here goes:

1. Burnout
What a great opener. There's no wasting time for the beginning to Dookie. Burnout, while not especially memorable is a great way to begin the album and pretty much sets the theme for the whole album. If you like what's going on here, you're going to enjoy the rest of the album.

2. Having A Blast
This track deals with a theme of self-destruction and it's already an improvement on the first track. Once again, it's nothing that'll make you scream "Wow!" and jump up and down in amazement but it's certainly a fun listen.

3. Chump
Chump is a third dose of pop-punk pleasure and the backing vocals from bassist Mike Dirnt really stand out on this track. The breakdown with the bass part is especially cool and the awesome drumming at the end of the song fades into...

4. Longview
Longview! The first single from the album is probably by far one of the most rockin' songs on the album and a pop-punk classic. What can I say? The track begins with a somewhat subtle (yet infuriatingly catchy) bass line played along to pounding drums and then, in the chorus Billie Joe's power chords are thrashed out to a loud and snotty chorus. Longview is also the essential teenage anthem. Dealing with themes of boredom and masturbation, this is a song most kids will relate to while having a great time slam dancing to as well.

5. Welcome to Paradise
This track originally was recorded for the band's second LP, Kerplunk but while that version sounded slightly uneasy the Dookie version is super confident and the band sound more comfortable playing it on this album. This, being another single from the album became one of the band's signature themes and is often a fan favourite and a riot when played at their live shows.

6. Pulling Teeth
A bit of a slower song about an abusive girlfriend. It doesn't seem to be very popular but for some reason I really enjoy this one.

7. Basket Case
Self-depreciation is a reoccurring theme in Green Day's setlist but never is it expressed as famously than on Basket Case. Probably the fan favourite from the album and one of their most successful singles to date. This may sound daring but I reckon Basket Case is the Green Day song. It's the tune that'll get you hooked with Green Day's signature melodies, I know I was!

8. She
Awesome bass on this one. I think this one was released as a single in Australia but it definitely wasn't one of the big singles from the album. Nevertheless, it's a great song and one that should probably come up more in Green Day's live show.

9. Sassafras Roots
To me this song's a bit Ramone-sy. Maybe it's the repetitive verse/chorus but It's very catchy but like She didn't really become one of the band's regular songs.

10. When I Come Around
Another single and another one of the band's regular songs, When I Come Around has a different pace and I think that makes it stand out on the record. It was definitely needed to balance out the other two big singles. It's probably one of the more poppy songs on the album.

11. Coming Clean
Dealing with Billie Joe's bisexuality, Coming Clean is another song that probably appealed to many teenagers in the sense that Longview did and that's one of the great things about the record, how relatable some of the tunes are and Green Day definitely knew their demographic when they put these songs on the album. It's also one of the shorter tracks too.

12. Emenius Sleepus
Bit of an obscure song written by Mike Dirnt. Seems to have disappeared from the band's setlist. Nothing special really but still a solid track.

13. In The End
Had this been the last track on the album it would've made a great finisher! Reminds me a bit of the songs off Kerplunk in it's tone.

14. F.O.D. / All By Myself
F.O.D. is awesome. What begins as an acoustic expression of angry thoughts turns into the most aggressive song on the album! It's so satisfying to hear the heavy distortion in this track and the pure rage in Billie's vocals. Really cool song and a great way to end a classic record... But unsurprisingly there's still more as we're treated to a slightly creepy song written by drummer Tre Cool called 'All By Myself'. It doesn't take a genius to get what he's singing about an it's so stupid yet equally amusing to hear when hearing it for the first time.

VERDICT
Green Day didn't invent punk rock and they certainly haven't done anything new here but what they have done is take that punk rock attitude add in the pop that was akin to Armstrong's natural style of songwriting and what you have is punk rock that sounded ready to play on the radio but also entirely suitable for the punk clubs Green Day had been playing years prior to this recording.
In fact the songs on here don't sound radically different from those on Kerplunk but the difference is this mass amount of confidence that band seemed to have acquired. Don't be put off by the enormous amount of support from MTV or the funding of a major label. When you listen to the beautiful music on the album, that's all irrelevant.

9.5/10

[ivansworth]

nice review

[Lambertwhite]

Not just nice man..that is a actually a great review..thanks for sharing that with all of us..i really appreciate that..

[Ozthemonkey]

Amazing review , and dookie is just pure gold !