Green Day: Warning (1/26/2024)

Green Day: Warning [Reprise, 2000] As you observe the cover art of Green Day’s Warning, you see the band members in a black-and-white-photgraph, walking down the street, in simple clothes and not seeming to want to make an example of themselves. But, wait. Billie Joe has his face downcast, as if he has lost a war. Huh. Some humility. They’re humans now. You can feel this energy across Warning, not a depressing energy, as the cover might suggest, but an energy energy, something that brings the songs to a new artistic high point. On “Waiting,” they’re the rock gods they deserve to be, on “Castaway,” they ditch the trappings of previous records for a cryptic return to their underground days. On “Misery,” they take all the trappings they ditched and build it into a hilarious, deadpan rock opera. On the most anthemic of many anthems, “Deadbeat Holiday” is the cathartic anthem for everybody who gave up on trying to get some cathartic anthems out of NIN. “Minority” joyfully throws the rulebook out of the window for some stream-of-conciousness poetry and an acoustic guitar, which is all anyone needs in life if you’re me. But on the final song, the darkness of the album is given a space to go; “Macy’s Day Parade '' hits the OK Computer bar of artistic genius. For a best album, that’s not that bad. [10/10]