Salon | Sharps and Flats: Green Day

T A B L E__T A L K

What's in your cd player right now? Post your playlist in the Music department of Table Talk.

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R E C E N T L Y

Apples in Stereo
Tone Soul Evolution
spinART
(11/03/97)

Mike Watt
Contemplating the Engine Room
Columbia
(10/31/97)

Helium
Magic City
Matador Records
(10/30/97)

Replacements
All for Nothing
Reprise
(10/29/97)

Lucinda Williams
Live at the Fillmore
San Francisco
(10/28/97)

Various Artists
Everybody Wants Some
Cherrydisc/Roadrunner

BROWSE THE
MUSIC ARCHIVES

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V O W E L L

Sound Salvation
By Sarah Vowell
Stop the violins!
(10/31/97)

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F E A T U R E

Almost Heaven:
John Denver 1943-1997
Dawn Eden remembers the man whose music left no room for cynicism (10/14/97)

green_day-----> N I M R O D______
[ REPRISE ]

Green Day BY MARK ATHITAKIS

Back in the good old days, in the early '90s, when Green Day were happy enough to bash out scruffy punk tunes at the 924 Gilman club in Berkeley, Calif., the thought of ambition didn't even hit the band's radar. Ambition? That was something only rock stars had, the sort of thing bands like the Clash would lay claim to when they'd exhausted their ability to make "London Callings" and instead started coughing up "Combat Rocks." And even through 1995's half-baked "Insomniac," Green Day were still fighting the good fight, slacking off professionally and shooting off musical snot rockets. But for better or for worse, sales upward of 15 million records will change a band, and now they're starting to stray from the punky innocence that made their breakthrough "Dookie" a likable pop-punk excursion. Green Day are now rock stars, and subsequently, "Nimrod" is ambitious. Whoops.

They're still tight as a drum: Tre Cool's snare, Mike Dirnt's bass and Billie Joe Armstrong's guitar and vocals mesh in a lock-groove that most power trios would sell their favorite wallet chains for. But the pleasantly speedy songs like "The Grouch," "All the Time" and "Reject" are just tones and textures with none of the power and immediacy that the best punk requires; producer Rob Cavallo gives the album a warm, punchy feel that's ingratiating but soulless. It doesn't help that Armstrong's lyrics are built on clichés ("I'm lost for words"), borrowed puns ("your reject all-American") and colliding metaphors ("Cold turkey's getting stale, tonight I'm eating crow"), lacking the ironic color that even his trademark nasal-congestion yelping can't provide.

Worse, the band's gotten crafty, which isn't the same thing as "creative" -- it just means that the band has expanded its range of clichés to the music itself. The first single, "Hitchin' a Ride" plays on rockabilly and country swing, "Last Ride In" is a throwaway surf instrumental and the cross-dressing themes of "King For a Day" are backed by, of all things, an oompah sound. And the acoustic ballad "Good Riddance (The Time of Your Life)" is all the things that punk fought against, propelled by an achingly poignant lyric, with sorrowful strings to match. The times when "Nimrod" is any fun at all are when the band erases its pretentions and makes a great mess of things. The minute-long "Take Back" finds Armstrong all blood and bile and hate and spite, while the blistering caterwaul of "Haushinka" boasts a chorus that doesn't sound cribbed from a Ramones or Kinks album.

But most of "Nimrod" is just going through the motions; all that's different is that Green Day has discovered a few more motions to go through. It's the sound of Sid Vicious going through sensitivity training. Maybe for the next one, they can talk some guff about "getting back to our roots." Just like rock stars get to do.
SALON | Nov. 4, 1997

Mark Athitakis is a regular contributor to Salon.