I honestly think that if you want a solid pop punk album from Green Day and The Offspring you need to look beyond their big success albums and look to their followups, Insomniac (1995) and Ixnay on the Hombre (1997) respectively.

Insomniac is a bit heavier in sound and has some pretty decent gallows humor about it, particularly the song "Brat", about waiting for your rich parents to die so you can get your inheritance. It didn't have as many radio hits as Dookie (1994) but I think it's far more solid as an album as opposed to Dookie's collection of radio hits and filler. It also has my favorite Green Day track on it, "Stuart and the Ave." It's a catchy fun album that had the unfair task of living up to an album that spawned 4 instant '90's classics that are fondly remembered by anyone listening to rock radio at that time, and 1 that is really only remembered by fans.

As far as Ixnay on the Hombre is concerned, it's a pretty polarizing album (for whatever reason). It was their first album on a major label, so I'm sure that led to some fans of Smash (1994) instantly disliking it because of that superficial fact. It's quite a bit lighter in tone than Smash was, with a lot more humor, specifically the songs "Mota", "My & My Old Lady", and "Cool To Hate", which is a big middle finger to the misanthropic and cynical attitudes attached to punk. That said though, this album probably has The Offspring's most serious and best song, "Gone Away" which was released as a single and deals with loss. It really is a song that creates a contrast on the album and even people who dislike the album will say that "Gone Away" is a good song.

Both albums had the difficult task of living up to instant classics that nobody predicted would be as popular as they were when they came out. That kind of pressure is incredibly hard to live up to, but I think both bands responded like champs and left worthy followups that need a deeper examination than just another list of radio hits.

Here's a few of the songs from each album that I think really stand out.







Incidentally, if you like bass guitar then you'll like both albums.

I will just say it "Panic Song" > all of "Ixnay..."

What do you guys think about Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, 'The Death Of You And Me'?
It was just released yesterday...

Yeah I know all that but the polished quality is not what makes me not consider Queensryche metal. They just seem like really good hard rock to me.

For that matter, so does Van Halen. And I hate Def Leppard, although I wouldn't consider them metal either.

Meh, I've just never been able to get into Dookie. Not a huge fan of pop punk anyway.

i didn't like Insomniac much - time for a re-evaluation?

I like Insomniac. It is basically just Dookie outtakes.

They should have put "J.A.R." on it though.

Well I also listened to Insomniac before Dookie and it was my first Green Day, so there's probably some nostalgia factor distorting my opinion, but regardless I still think it's the stronger of the two albums. I would say give it another listen.

i remember the only song that got my attention was Armitage Shanks or something like that

i need to dig it out

"Panic Song" is amazing, worth it for that song alone.

I can see where you`re coming from here and I`d say especially in the 70`s heavy metal and hard rock were often synonymous which each other. One still blues influenced and the other supposedly far less so, but I`d say that was a very basic way of assessing it and there were other factors at work here as well.

Van Halen are a great example really of the above, they were metal in demeanour but had real pop sensibilities and a glam approach which put them in the rock camp, which made them very different to their British NWOBHM counterparts of which DEF Leppard were actually one. DEF Leppard just went down the Van Halen path, rather than staying with the rawer metal that they started out with.