Review Summary: The very first glimpse of Green Day.... it rocks. This is solid punk... loud, fast, and awesome. Anyone who remotely likes punk should dig this and I promise you if you listen to this album you won't regret it. If you enjoyed this album, then try Kerplunk
There comes a time in everybody's life when we all must face the inevitable. No I'm not talking about death, or anything like that. I'm talking about the awful and offensive statements made by ignorant people. Those statements sum up to "I have Green Day's First CD, Dookie". You all know what I'm talking about, and I'm sure you've had to face such ignorance personally. I know, it's hard. Millions of people every day are victims of this ignorance, but we mustn't give up. With time, people will realize that we don't have horns growing. I mean there was Green Day before Dookie.
1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, not Dookie, is Green Day's debut album. For those of you who aren't familiar with the band's earlier material, I'll start off with some history. When one compares this album, to Dookie, he/she will realize a huge difference in sound. Billie Joe's guitar sound is thinner, the bass isn't quite as audible, the drumming sounds like it's by a different drummer, and the overall production isn't as good. Well, the reasons for those observations are that this album was put out on the independent label, Lookout, as opposed to Dookie, which was put out on Warner Brothers. Obviously on an independent label the budget isn't nearly as big, so the production is rawer. As for the drumming, on 1039/Slappy Hours, the band had a different drummer, by the name of John Kiftmyer. Now, to the music.
The album kicks off with a cool, and catchy song called "At the Library". In this song Billie Joe sings about a girl he's fascinated with, that he spotted at what I'm assuming is a Library. This song sets the tone for most of the album, which is songs about girls. Still, the lyrics are pretty insightful, and the band is still young, so they have some future maturing to do. I love this song. It's a great opening song to catch your attention.
Songs like "I Was There" and "Road to Acceptance," not to mention the implicitly weed-celebrating "Green Day" itself, are great calling cards for later breakouts on both levels. Disappearing Boy is a great tune with a real driving beat and guitar. The lyrics are quite insightful, talking about how he feels like he's invisible at times. "Going to Pasalacqua" is probably one of the best punk-pop songs ever written. Back in the day, this song was pure gold... nobody in all of punk sang like Billie Joe, or wrote melodies like this one. It was songs like this that really built their fan-base.
"16" is another great song that is typical of their style, and is reflected in some of the later songs on later albums. This is a song you can groove to. The gritty sounding guitar saws it's way into "Paper Lanterns", then followed by very upbeat drums and a good bass backup. "Lanterns" is an instant classic, with it's very catchy and memorable vocals sticking in your head alongside the constant pounding of the drums...This song's sound really defines the rest of the album, not including the cover of Operation Ivy's "Knowledge".
There are a ton of other good songs on here, such as "Dry Ice," "1000 Hours" and more... but I don't have the time or patience to explain them all. Just realize that although the production quality isn't as good as their latest stuff, many of their best songs are found here. Maybe I'm biased, since these were the songs that drew me to the band.... but not many pop punk bands can create music as the raw brilliance found in these songs.
