2023 Albums #0

• Album: Warning
• Artist: Green Day
• Year: 2000
• Spotify link

For all the shit it got at the time, this really holds up. It just dials down the punk a bit, when it seems like fans wanted another Nimrod. I can’t pick a bad song from it, it’s just missing the big bang songs like Time Of Your Life. But show me Church On Sunday, Minority and Macy’s Day Parade and I’ll show you a good album.

This is a special album for me. It was the first “proper” album I bought. It marks a clear line in my childhood, with football shirts and 90s pop on one side, and baggy jeans, skateboards, and alternative/punk (as iTunes always insisted on calling it) on the other.

So maybe it is mediocre and I’m biased by nostalgia. But one thing that sticks with me is reading Green Day’s opinion on it, years later. This was a direction they enjoyed taking, and they were disappointed by fan reaction. That’s why they started side projects like Foxboro Hottubs, and didn’t even want to say it was them for a long time.

I really loved Warning as my introduction to Green Day and that whole scene. And I still love it now.