How on Earth can you follow one of the best selling punk albums in the entire world? Well, Green Day seemed to be able to do it quite well. When ‘Dookie’ sold about 15 million copies, there was no way that the follow up, 1995’s ‘Insomniac’, was going to get anywhere near that figure. So, instead of blatantly cashing on their success, they wrote a record full of hate and anger, and the critics wrote it off. But look a little deeper and you’ll find a collection of songs that rock very hard indeed.
‘Armatage Shanks’ was named after Billie Joe visited a toilet at the BBC during a John Peel session. He liked the name on the ceramic and duly named the opening song after it. It’s just a shame he spelt it wrong… But it’s still a venomously unapologetic opening. Rumours were abound that Reprise wanted the band to milk ‘Dookie’ for all its worth. Instead they came out with this, a big “fuck you” to their critics. Lyrically it remains as twisted and as dark as ever. “Stranded…lost inside myself, my own worst friend, my own closest enemy,” Billie Joe barks on the opening track. Self-loathing is something which litters Green Day songs, along with a general apathy that only Billie Joe can pull off successfully.
‘Brat‘ rocks with its “nothing good can last” refrain, and ‘Stuck With Me’ is simply pissed off Green Day. The band are at their best when they offer a two-fingered salute to every man and his dog, and this is a trait which litters this record, yet was sadly lacking during ‘Warning’. ‘Geek Stink Breath’ is now a Green Day anthem. It’s three-chord riff is as simple as they come, but is Green Day all over. Billie Joe’s vocals are as nasal and strong as ever, and Tre’s drumming is typically strong.
There is no change to the formula with ‘No Pride’, which is again Green Day-by-numbers. But with a chorus as catchy as they come, you’ll be air-drumming and singing along before you know it. ‘Bab’s Uvula Who?’ is a crap name for a song, but, hey, I’ll forgive you. Scything guitars and a choppy bassline make for yet another great song. Everything seems to flow well on this CD, whether or not the band were conscious of it at the time remains to be seen, but everything follows on in the manner you would expect it to. There’s no time for respite, it’s just 100mph punk rock all the way through.
’86’ is a bit poppier, with a great pick-slide opening and ‘Panic Song’ has one of the coolest introductions to a song ever. For two minutes the drums and bassline build it all up, before it all comes crashing down into a cacophony of destruction. ‘Stuart and the Ave’ is much less chaotic and is more Green Day in structure, if that makes any sense. ‘Brain Stew’ is a highlight for me, again Billie Joe makes one of the simplest riffs in punk rock sound superb, crunching and hacking his way through a mass of distortion. I think it was part of the Godzilla movie soundtrack, and it fits perfectly with the stomps that such a creature would have made. It’s a great riff to play live, as any guitarist would testify, with the pick scrapes adding an extra layer to the sound. And when it all kicks off, it simply sounds immense. Then it just effortlessly blends into ‘Jaded’, another kick-ass punk rock tune with a cool-as-fuck riff.
‘Westbound Sign’ is again only three chords, but sounds wicked despite the fact that it isn’t the strongest track on the album. I’ve never been keen on ‘Tight Wad Hill’ and I reckon it would probably have suited their earlier releases better than this one. It just isn’t pissed off enough to make enough of an impact. But all is redeemed with ‘Walking Contradiction’, one of the album’s singles, and another anthem.
As an album, ‘Insomniac’ is far more cohesive than ‘Dookie’. But it misses out on an anthem or two, something which its predecessor had in abundance. But this is still a great cd, and one that really should be part of your collection.
Paul Savage.