Green Day- Insomniac
Billie Joe Armstrong- Guitars/Vocals
Mike Dirnt- Bass/Backing Vocals
Tre Cool- Drums
Released in 1995, this is Green Day's fourth album, and their first release following the mammoth, ground-breaking success of
Dookie. As the story goes, Green Day was one of the more popular bands at their Berkeley punk hangout, 924 Gilman St., because their songs were less heavy and more catchy and accessible. Eventually, their two independently-released albums were selling faster than label Lookout Records could produce them, and the band had no choice but to sign to Reprise and "sell out" in the eyes of their punk peers.
When
Dookie hit the mainstream, it was an instant success thanks to songs like "Longview" and "Basket Case." The backlash in the Berkeley punk community was immediate, and Green Day's anger at losing their street cred and local friends is evident in
Insomniac, their angriest, fastest, shortest record to date (I think). The fourteen tracks clock in at about thirty-two minutes, so hold on tight for this review.
1. Armatage Shanks (2:16): The opening track starts off with some drums and then we get right to the lyrics. Reading the lyrics as they're sung from the booklet, you'll be surprised how fast Billie Joe gets through all of them and then repeats them again. This is a pretty typical Green Day song, so you're not missing much if you haven't heard it. 3.5/5
2. Brat (1:43): This is a pretty simple song about living with one's parents or something. Here we first hear the simplistic genius of Mike Dirnt's bass fills. They're not flashy, but Dirnt rarely takes a direct route from one root note to the next, opting instead to hit every note on the scale between the roots. Nifty and effective, but the song's just average. 3/5
3. Stuck With Me (2:15): This is more of a breakup song, despite the title. You can tell that the chorus is more of the sing-along-at-concerts type, and that's always what Green Day has done best. Plenty of backing vocals from Mike here, adding to the song's singalong quality. 3.5/5
4. Geek Stink Breath (2:15): As with the last album, Green Day chooses to place arguably its best track in slot number four. While this isn't as good as "Longview," I still feel it's the album's best. Bassists, learn the main riff and TRY not to play it every time you sit down. It's just that fun:
A-------1-2--------2--
E--2-2--------0-0-----
Repeat as necessary. This song was almost helped by a music video on MTV, but the graphic image of someone's tooth being pulled probably wasn't the best way to get this song out. Oh well, it's still my favorite. 5/5
5. No Pride (2:19): Now it's back to business as usual, unfortunately. Nothing special in this song, but it's not bad either. I just don't have any strong feelings about this song one way or the other. 3/5
6. Bab's Uvula Who? (2:08): This is one of the angriest songs on the album, with a forceful riff and a mumbly chorus that doesn't even appear in the lyric booklet. Rest assured it has something to do with the last line of every verse, "...and I get myself all wound up." It's one of the slightly more memorable tracks because honestly... what the hell does the title mean? 4/5
7. 86 (2:47): Now I know what this title means. It's mob lingo or something for killing someone: "I 86'd da bum!" they would say. But that's not a lyric or anything. I was just sayin'. More anthemic chorus from Billie and Mike: "There's no return from 86." That's an actual lyric, though. 4/5
8. Panic Song (3:35): The album's longest track. Starts off with some tremolo picking by the bass, rolling drums similar to "Longview" and some sparse guitar notes. By the time most of the album's songs have finished all the lyrics, this song has just started at the two-minute mark. You can feel how they definitely built up the song to something important, but you also knew in the back of your head that it would just be another Green Day song by the end. It's a good song still. 4.5/5
9. Stuart and the Ave. (2:03): Starts off with a neat bass intro, and we get a set of memorable lyrics: "Standing on the corner of Stuart and the Avenue/ Ripping up my transfer and a photograph of you." It's a break-up song for sure, but not the kid-friendly chorus you may expect. "Before it might have made some sense but now it's all fuc
ked up!" Hooray, they're not really sellouts now! 4/5
10. Brain Stew (3:12): The album's most famous track, guided to success by a music video set in a garbage dump and the amazingly-easy music. This should be every instrumentalist's first complete song to learn, because once you have those five notes, you've got the entire song (guitarists may need to learn muting though). This song really highlights Billie Joe's incoherent singing style, because the radio/MTV never, EVER censors him when he says "Fuc
ked up and spun out in my room."
The song ends in slow, plodding chaos, and leads directly into the next song. 4.5/5
11. Jaded (1:30): To compliment Brainstew's slowness, this track explodes right out the gate in Green Day's shortest, angriest, fastest song of their mainstream career. I love this song, and I love how MTV combined these two tracks into one single video. "There is no progress/Evolution killed it all/ I found my place in nowhere." Terrific, one of my favorite songs considering its length. 5/5
12. Westbound Sign (2:13): This is a song about finding a new beginning in California, as we all know we'd like to do someday. We're back to standard Green Day now, with plenty of bass fills by Mike and Billie Joe's mumbly yet melodic singing. 3.5/5
13. Tight Wad Hill (2:01): It's hard to tell exactly what this song's about (or maybe I don't care), but it doesn't disappoint when it comes to what you'd expect from Green Day. The chorus is Billie and Mike singing together, so that's another great quality all this band's songs seem to hold. 3.5/5
14. Walking Contradiction (2:31): This song was also released as a single and accompanied by a hilarious music video of stuff getting destroyed (How did that cop car hit the traffic light?). I never thought of it as an album closer, probably because it's also a single, but it fits fine it the album. This is the most political Green Day ever bothered to get before they decided to collaborate on Rock Against Bush, but I wouldn't blame them: their forte is pop songs. Like this one, which is another great example of their talent. 5/5
Well, that's the whole album for you. It's often overlooked by individual songs on other albums (like Longview on
Dookie and Good Riddance on
Nimrod), but the album as a whole has no real weaknesses; it's hard to point to one song and say it's the worst. Instead, it's much easier to pick out a few standout tracks and relegate the rest to mediocrity. If that's the kind of album you'd like, then you should definitely pick this one up. I consider it Green Day's second best after
Dookie, so make of it what you will. This band knows how to make songs that place them above their genre's peers, most of whom just copy off them anyway. Believe it or not, this album gets a 4/5 from me, because it's just that good for its type.
