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Review Summary: Green Day's second full album was the perfect dry run for the band's later assault on the mainstream, containing both more variety and more flat-out smashes than previous releases had shown. Before Green Day's epic album "Dookie", there was "Kerplunk". An album that clearly shows the band at their beginning musical roots of punk. What may catch most off guard is the fact that even though they were slamming on their guitars and being as immature as possible, they still remained serious musicians. With Tre Cool now firmly in place as the drummer, the lineup was at last settled, and it turned out Cool and Mike Dirnt were a perfect rhythm section, with the former showing a bit more flash and ability than John Kiftmeyer did. Together the two throw in a variety of guitarless breaks that would later help to define the band's sound for many -- warm and never letting the beat go. As for Billie Joe Armstrong, his puppy-dog delivery and eternal switching between snotty humor and sudden sorrrow was better than ever, as were his instantly memorable riffs.
The album starts with a note-perfect bang "2000 Light Years Away" the absolute highlight of the group's premajor-label days, with a great chorus and classic yearning lyrics. It got buried in the wave of Dookie's success a bit, but one other number didn't -- "Welcome to Paradise," also a standout on that album, appears here in its original form. Rob Cavallo punched up the radio-friendly sound on the latter take, but even here it's a treat and a half -- quick, rampaging, and once again with a great stop-start chorus to spare. Armstrong’s clear, earnest vocals add just the right touch of snotty indifference and warm empathetic sincerity where necessary. “One of My Lies,” “Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?” and the moderately subdued “Words I Might Have Ate” riff with exuberance while “Christie Road” slows things down just enough to express what for this punk trio would be considered their “soft” side. It still attacks with Armstrong’s guitar never relenting on drummer Tre Cool and bassist Mike Dirnt’s meter-perfect attack. Cool even sidetracks the band into a little thigh-slapping country dig with “Dominated Love Slave.” which shows that Green Day can pull off a ridiculous yet worthy country song to a much slower and more in depth song "No One Knows" which lyrics and tone flow differently from the whole album. To this date, I have not heard one band do a better punk cover of The Who's "My Generation" then Green Day.
Kerplunk can be described as a transition from the raw energy and pace of 1039/SOSH to the pure Pop-Punk masterpiece of Dookie. There is a logical progression between each album (until you get to Warning that is), and Kerplunk showed some early signs of "Nimrod" with the guys not always using tons of overdrive (as was the case on "Dookie" and "Insomniac"). This album holds up very well with their later work though, and I recommend it to anyone really wanting to get to know the band. I do however know a few people that listen to "American Idiot" and nothing else, and that is a bummer, because they have other work out there that is really amazing.
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what's with all of the green day reviews lately
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Nice review, awesome album
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I honestly thought it was just one user writing a review for every single thing in greenday's discog, but I guess not.
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what's with all of the green day reviews lately
they've all been by the same user bruh
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what's with all of the green day reviews lately [2]
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Nah Delilah you've got it wrong, Salvatore started writing reviews for Green Day's first albums a while back, while I reviewed some EP's (1,000 Hours and Slappy, to be precise).
Leo, you've got some spelling errors you could fix, try reading your review one more time to fix some grammar issues. Also, it's John Kiffmeyer, and not Kiftmeyer.
Besides that grammar issue you've got to fix, it's a pretty solid and well written review, pos'd hard from me. I love some old Green Day, Kerplunk is certainly one of my favorites, a lot of great overlooked gems.
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Dominated Love Slave was the first thing from Green Day that I was exposed to back in High School. A local college station played it at like 3am one night. I remember getting a ride to Northampton Ma the following weekend to grab a tape copy of this after that.
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'tape copy'
the good ole days llama
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Dominated Love Slave is crappy as hell. Album has it's jams, but I never got and probably never will, why everyone loves it so much.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
well it's far from a classic but still best gd
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
One of their best, good review as well.
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Album is legit, Kris. 2000 Light Years Away, Welcome To Paradise, Christie Road, Who Wrote Holden Caulfield and No One Knows are great. Not sure if it's my favorite Green Day album (I personally prefer Dookie and Insomniac) but it's up there.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Even if so (don't get No One Knows, would rather add One For The Razorbacks), the rest is pretty mediocre and very similar. And the Sweet Children EP, well, sounds like they just played it in a basement and left it at that.
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To be fair, though, Sweet Children EP wasn't included in Kerplunk when it first came out, only when it got reissued a couple of years back. So technically, it shouldn't count as an official part of Kerplunk. As for Kerplunk itself, I just think it's a very fun album to listen to, brings back many vivid memories, and even without nostalgia factors it's an excellent album. I can see why you wouldn't enjoy it as much, though.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Yeah, definitely got to re-rate it without the EP, probably a 2.5 then. Still, Green Day as a punk band will never by my cup of tea.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
green day as anything else than a punk band will never be my cup of tea
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Great album that people always seem to forget about.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Album is legit, Kris. 2000 Light Years Away, Welcome To Paradise, Christie Road, Who Wrote Holden Caulfield and No One Knows are great. Not sure if it's my favorite Green Day album (I personally prefer Dookie and Insomniac) but it's up there.
^^^ Get out of my head!
I think 80 and One of My Lies are great tunes too.
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Hey cheers man, yeah 80 and One Of My Lies are great. Whole album is, tbh.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Christie Road is legit
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