Green Day - Warning Review

'Warning' is very much the underrated Green Day album. It rarely surfaces in conversations about the band, none of the singles are usually put among their biggest hits or best songs and the album was comparatively unsuccessful in terms of sales. It's a shame, since it may just be one of Green Days all-time best albums.

Many people see 'American Idiot' as the first 'pop' Green Day album, but 'Warning' is arguably even more pop-inspired, as the trio wanted to maintain success in a world where nu-metal and post-grunge were (unfortunately) far more popular than punk. This evolution is shown clearly on the opening title track, with it's extremely simple riff, which is also mirrored completely by Mike Dirnt's less forceful than usual bass and accompanied with more casual drumming from Tre Cool. Many people list this as one of the worst Green Day songs, which I understand - The song is incredibly repetitive and overly simple - but I still love the chorus. 

 Undoubtedly much better is 'Blood, Sex and Booze', the second song the band has written about BDSM and (as much as I love 'Dominated Love Slave), is the better of the two. 'Church On Sunday' and 'Castaway' are two of the all-time catchiest, brightest Green Day songs with upbeat guitars and lyrics that vary from uplifting ("Today is the first day of the rest of our lives") to strangely happy ("I'm a castaway"). Sandwiched between them is 'Fashion Victim', which has some savage insults in the lyrics and is the first sign of pop-punk on the album.

'Misery' has an appropriate name, as the song is difficult to listen to due to several factors. It's one of the more experimental Green Day songs, musically and lyrically, but neither risk pays off. The accordion and venetian guitars are interesting for about a minute but then get boring, and Billie Joe Armstrong's lyrics are depressing and strangely dark ("They found him in a cadillac, bludgeoned with a baseball bat."). 'Deadbeat Holiday' is better, although it doesn't stand out particularly, being similar in sound and theme to 'Castaway' but not quite as good. The album gets properly back on track with 'Hold on', which benefits from a harmonica riff and a nice chorus. 'Jackass' is brilliant too, with it's earworm melodies filling every second of the song - but then the album kicks it up a notch.

The final 3 tracks on 'Warning' are the 3 best songs on the album and is the strongest end to any Green album. 'Waiting' feels like a direct precursor to 'Wake Me Up When September Ends' except it makes you feel awesome instead of heartbroken, complete with a convincing false ending. 'Minority' should probably have been in the front half of the album, but is easily the biggest sing-along chorus and simply the most fun song on the disc. It's the perfect 3 minute pop single, and also signifies the beginning of Green Days anti-government songs. From this soaring high, the album collapses to a subdued low with the acoustic guitar-led 'Macy's Day Parade'. It's one of those songs which gets me every time, although I can't really describe why. I think it's the combination of Armstrong's serious vocals, the circling acoustic riff and the lyrics that tackle hope and completion ("Now I know, it's all that I wanted.")

When looking at Green Day's discography it's clear that 'Warning' is important - it set the band up in a great position for their second bout of huge success in 2005 and is simply a really great pop-rock record that is sorely and unfairly overlooked.

9/10