Review Summary: A slightly darker, but still loud and energetic Green Day
Insomniac, Green Day's fourth full-length (2nd on a major label), is definately one of Green Day's best. It was also sort of strange, but in a good way. It's pretty much a classic Green Day album, in fact, it's Green Day's third best selling album behind Dookie (1994) and American Idiot (2004).
Released on October 10, 1995, Insomniac opens with a "mini" drum solo, and preceds to 30 minutes of pure energy and force. The sound quality on this album is pretty amazing, I personally think the quality of the sound was better then on Dookie, but that's just my opinion. The songs are all short and to the point, with 14 tracks clocking in at just a little less then 33 minutes.
One thing unique with this album is it's title and it's art. When asked in an interview, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said the album name came from Winston Smith (The artist who made the album cover). When Billie asked him how he could work so fast, Smith replied, "That's easy, I'm an insomniac!" The album art is also quite amazing, and it is actually a collage that Winston Smith made, called "God Told Me to Skin You Alive".
The album was definately harder and more powerful than Dookie, and Billie Joe wrote the songs out of anger and also his newfound "fame" Green Day got after releasing Dookie the year before.
To be blunt, the lyrics on this album are darker, but just a wee bit more powerful than on Dookie. The lyrics go really well with the music, and even the music without much lyrics can make you know what they're talking about. An example of this would be "Panic Song". The singing only starts about halfway through the song, but just by hearing the music you can already know what Billie's gonna be singin' about.
Billie Joe's voice hasn't changed much since Dookie however, it's still some cool pop punk voice, and that reminds me, I think this is one of Green Day's most "Punk" albums.
Here are some songs that stand-out in Insomniac:
01. Stuck With Me: One of their most energetic songs, it's one anyone can sing along to and it's fantastic
02. Geek Stink Breath: This song, is one of my ultimate favourite Green Day songs, not even counting the fact that it always get's the audience pumped when my band plays it live.
03. 86: 86 is a really awesome song, it talks about how after Green Day signed on a major record label, they got banished from 924 Gilman Street, the all ages punk club in California where they, and many other cool bands, got started.
04. Stuart And The Ave.: That bass. That is one of the coolest bass lines ever!
05. Westbound Sign: Another song that'll get you on your feet and singing along!
06. Walking Contradiction: the last song off the album, it finishes the album in an awesome "We'll be back" kind of way, plus it has one hell of an awesome music video!
Pro's: All songs are fast and energetic
Catchy memorable songs
Stuck With Me
Stuart And The Ave.
Con's: Too short
To finish off my review, I'll say that if I got this album stolen, I'd definately want a new copy. I love this album, really one of the albums I listened to the most as a kid.
