Warning

Performer: Green Day
Artist: Benmont Tench
Engineer: Tone; Rick Ash; Ken Allardyce
Producer: Green Day
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Green Day: Billie Joe (vocals, guitar, mandolin, harmonica); Mike Drint (vocals, Farfisa organ, bass); Tre Cool (accordion, drums, percussion). Additional personnel: Benmont Tench, Gary Meek, Mistress Simone. This is an enhanced CD which contains regular audio tracks as well as multimedia computer files. This limited edition of WARNING contains a 64-page booklet. It is packaged in a digipack in a green plastic bag. Green Day: Billie Joe (vocals, guitar, mandolin, harmonica); Mike Drint (vocals, Farfisa organ, bass); Tre Cool (accordion, drums, percussion). Additional personnel: Benmont Tench, Gary Meek, Mistress Simone. This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files. Personnel: Mike Dirnt (vocals, Farfisa); Billie Joe (vocals); Gary Meek (saxophone); Tre Cool (drums). Audio Mixer: Jack Joseph Puig. Recording information: Studio 890, Oakland, CA. Photographers: Lance Bangs; Chris Bilheimer; Marina Chavez. Unknown Contributor Role: Benmont Tench. By 2000, Green Day had long been spurned as unhip by the fourth-generation punks they popularized, and they didn't seem likely to replicate the MOR success of the fluke smash "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)." Apparently, the success of that ballad freed the band from any classifications or stigmas, letting them feel like they could do anything they wanted on their fifth album, Warning. They responded by embracing their fondness for pop and making the best damn album they'd ever made. There's a sense of fearlessness on Warning, as if the band didn't care if the album wasn't punk enough, or whether it produced a cross-platform hit. There are no ballads here, actually, and while there are a number of punchy, infectious rockers, the tempo is never recklessly breakneck. Instead, the focus is squarely on the songs, with the instrumentation and arrangements serving their needs. It's easy to say that Green Day have matured with this album, since they've never produced a better, more tuneful set of songs, or tried so many studio tricks and clever arrangements. However, that has the wrong connotation, since "mature" would indicate that Warning is a studious, carefully assembled album that's easier to admire than to love. That's not the case at all. This is gleeful, unabashed fun, even when Billie Joe Armstrong is getting a little cranky in his lyrics. It's fun to hear Green Day adopt a Beatlesque harmonica on "Hold On" or try out Kinks-ian music hall on "Misery," while still knocking out punk-pop gems and displaying melodic ingenuity and imaginative arrangements. Warning may not be an innovative record per se, but it's tremendously satisfying; it finds the band at a peak of songcraft and performance, doing it all without a trace of self-consciousness. It's the first great pure pop album of the new millennium. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine To debate whether or not Green Day truly was or is a punk band in the purest definition of the punk ethic now seems irrelevant. If nothing else, they're a pop band who can't seem to help but write good songs--in the case of WARNING, some really good songs. This album makes up for any missteps the band may have taken since the fluke success of DOOKIE. From the Katrina And The Waves groove of "Castaway" to the Beatles-esque harmonica on "Hold On," WARNING inspires a sense of musical deja vu that never crosses the line into out-and-out thievery. Hands-down, the most interesting track here is "Misery," which struts along with Doors-like quirkiness and goes through a progression of cultural movements that take instrumental turns in the form of deep strings, mariachi brass, and acoustic guitar melodies. If there's a warning to be found here, it's that Green Day has become a real band. Not very punk of them, but promising all the same. To debate whether or not Green Day truly was or is a punk band in the purest definition of the punk ethic now seems irrelevant. If nothing else, they're a pop band who can't seem to help but write good songs--in the case of WARNING, some really good songs. This album makes up for any missteps the band may have taken since the fluke success of DOOKIE. From the Katrina And The Waves groove of "Castaway" to the Beatles-esque harmonica on "Hold On," WARNING inspires a sense of musical deja vu that never crosses the line into out-and-out thievery. Hands-down, the most interesting track here is "Misery," which struts along with Doors-like quirkiness and goes through a progression of cultural movements that take instrumental turns in the form of deep strings, mariachi brass, and acoustic guitar melodies. If there's a warning to be found here, it's that Green Day has become a real band. Not very punk of them, but promising all the same.

Rolling Stone (1/4/01, p.108) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Top 50 Albums of 2000". Rolling Stone (10/12/00, p.90) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...The once-giddy melodies now settle for midtempo jangle or novelty....the best tune picks up where 1997s 'Good Riddance' left off....Green Day as the new Bread - who knew?" Rolling Stone (1/4/01, p.108) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Top 50 Albums of 2000". Rolling Stone (10/12/00, p.90) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...The once-giddy melodies now settle for midtempo jangle or novelty....the best tune picks up where 1997s 'Good Riddance' left off....Green Day as the new Bread - who knew?" Spin (12/00, p.215) - 6 out of 10 - "...Ventures a Kurt Weill-style story-song, Beatles harmonica, even the riff from Petula Clark's 'Downtown'....Armstrong is so earnestly good-hearted, so generally inclined toward the inner misfit...you can't help cheering him on..." Q (11/00, p.102) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Hugely likeable, terribly noisy and cute, as well as being jammed with proper pop songs, there remains nothing wrong with Green Day..." Q (11/00, p.102) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Hugely likeable, terribly noisy and cute, as well as being jammed with proper pop songs, there remains nothing wrong with Green Day..." Alternative Press (11/00, p.110) - 4 out of 5 - "...A good little record....further refining the folk-punk they introduced 2 years ago..." Magnet (1-2/01, p.93) - "...May not only be the most beautiful Green Day LP but also the bravest....working with a sense of maturity they have only begun to express..." CMJ (10/2/00, p.23) - "...They draw non-punk influences to their sound while hanging tight to [their] melodic Midas touch..." CMJ (10/2/00, p.23) - "...They draw non-punk influences to their sound while hanging tight to [their] melodic Midas touch..." Melody Maker (10/3/00, p.58) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...This sort of music used to be called new wave in the late Seventies..." Melody Maker (10/3/00, p.58) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...This sort of music used to be called new wave in the late Seventies..." Mojo (Publisher) (10/00, p.102) - "...The sound of 3 men growing old far too gracefully....the tracks stroll along at a worryingly sedate pace, barely breaking a sweat....Like punk never happened. Again." Mojo (Publisher) (10/00, p.102) - "...The sound of 3 men growing old far too gracefully....the tracks stroll along at a worryingly sedate pace, barely breaking a sweat....Like punk never happened. Again."

Coming out of the grass-roots Gilman St. punk scene of the early-1990s Bay Area, Green Day exploded into the mainstream with their third album, 1994's DOOKIE. The trio's punk energy and pop hooks, influenced by first-generation punks like the Buzzcocks, in turn inspired a huge legion of punk-pop followers. Their energy level flagged a bit following the smash success of DOOKIE, but the band's enormously successful 2004 Grammy-winning political concept album, AMERICAN IDIOT, proved they were mature artists and far from a one-trick pony.

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