Green Day – Dookie (1994)

Green Day's career has had a couple different defining moments depending on how old you are. To my generation, Dookie is the only answer to what's the best thing Green Day ever made. It was huge at the time of its release! Dookie is the band's first major label album and when they moved away from their indie label, many of the old fans abandoned the band calling them sell-outs. Younger generations found Green Day again after American Idiot and to them that's what Green Day is all about. The newer Green Day is more stadium rock than punk rock. To me personally, Dookie is the greatest era in band's history, because that's when their songwriting became mature enough to be interesting, but they still held on to their punk rock attitude. When I was about 12 years old, Green Day was really popular amongst my classmates and we really listened to it all the time.



Dookie is an important album also because there's only one acceptable format to own it in. No, it's not the vinyl this time. It's the green jewel case CD. For reasons or others I never actually bought this album back in the 90s. I was just listening to it from a cassette or a minidisc around that time. Later on, when I became more of a record collector, I really wanted to find the green jewel case, but it proofed to be quite difficult to find it. All the reissues were just normal jewel cases, but I refused to buy it like that. I finally found it used in a Helsinki-based record shop after years' search in its original green case and I was really happy about it. Now I own this CD as it's supposed to be owned.

The album kicks in with a band in the song Burnout. It's an excellent opening track because right from the first notes it's clear what the tempo and attitude on this album are going to be like. This kind of fast tempo pop punk was also titled skate punk while I was growing up since all the skateboarding kids were listening to it. Having a Blast continues in a similar vein but in this song there are more earthy bass sounds and this is the first song on the album where there's a criminally catchy chorus. Chump goes even more melodic. Listening to this song it becomes clear that what makes Dookie such a good album is the fact that all the songs have very strict punk sounds, but the songs are really melodic and well composed compared to just few chords and screaming vocals. Longview tones the tempo down a bit. This song is run on bass line which dominates the sound world outside the chorus. Welcome to Paradise is one of my favourite songs from the album. I didn't pay that much attention to this song back in the day, but now I really like the vocal harmonies in the song. Pulling Teeth has a bit more relaxed tempo and it actually sounds more like power pop than punk rock. There are similarities to bands like The Posies or early Teenage Fanclub. Next, it's time for the band's massive megahit  Basket Case. I don't know if kids these days even realise just how big this hit was back in the day. It played everywhere and I mean everywhere! I grew up with this song and it still gives me shivers down my spine. Definitely one of the greatest songs of my early teenage years. She brings back the bass dominated sound. The guitars leading to the chorus remind me of a band from the same era, NOFX. When I Come Around was the number two hit from the album. It was also played everywhere all the time. I really like the bass lines in this song. In terms of songwriting, this is a great piece and it's so essentially 90s that it couldn't have been made in any other decade. Coming Clean has a bit rougher guitar sounds than most of the album, but the melodies are still very poppy. In the End is the most punk song on this album. It's fast, it has attitude, it's all about the tempo. F.O.D. is mostly acoustic song, which breaks the punk line of the album, but there is still an ending to this song that cranks up the volume. The album ends in All By Myself, which is a strange lo-fi folk song with strange noises here and there. I don't know why the band wanted to include this on the album, but I guess they thought they couldn't just end it with another full-tempo punk track.

There's only one option I can link here as the music video. That's Basket Case. I must have seen this video hundreds of times. The band is playing the song in a mental institution. What I remember best from this song is the insane hand movement Billie Joe Armstrong makes while playing the guitar and the expression on his face. The patients in the ward are wearing strange masks and the attitude of the band playing is just insanely good.

As a band, Green Day has never been that important to me personally. I mean, I've liked their music and I even like some of the new stuff, but I wouldn't consider them that important in my overall music consumption. Nevertheless, Dookie will always have a special place in my heart as one of the bands that provided a soundtrack for my early teenage years.

Listen to the album on Spotify.