Blasphemy & Genocide: Unpopular Green Day Opinions, Part 2

[The Bellie]

2 hours ago, TimmyChunks said:

I think we're on the same page- both sounded kind of "sterile" in the studio vs. the live versions. I'm not an audio engineer and I know the experts on here have discussed this many times, but the mix on many of the songs was a little to artificially clean- and I love the Trilogy, I think there are a ton of great songs in there, the studio product just fell flat at times unfortunately. I'd take 95% of those songs live any day, however. And I still listen to all three albums as they're a great body of work. Hell, I listen to 1,039 and Kerplunk all the time, I'm not about to let some nitpicks about the recording quality get in the way of enjoying good music. But it's a minor nitpick that I think about when I listen to the trilogy- especially Uno- sometimes it's a little too glossy. 

Unpopular opinion: I don't find any album of the trilogy artificially clean sounding or notably flat in their studio version, though I've seen that written quite a lot. I like the way it is mixed when I listen to the albums. That being said, I do prefer a good live version, as I do for mostly any Green Day song. (I'm not an audio engineer either, nor a guitar expert. )

If there's a bright side I can think of on this matter, for the band, it's that considering the mix in the trilogy has felt slightly too neat for many listeners, whereas that result may have taken a lot of work on the boys, hopefully that experience will allow them to keep the measure of the effort they put at this level. They've shown it with RevRad and I hope they go on with an equally lightened vibe while recording in the future.

[CherryBombs&Gasoline]

I don't know if this counts as unpopular, but every trilogy song sounds better on Demolicious. Some of you have already mentioned the "artificial" sound and I agree, that's one of my main issues with the trilogy. Demolicious is different though. 

[Beerjeezus]

I don't mind that Stray Heart sounds like Mother Mary. It's on radio right now, I'm hearing it for the first time in months and I'm actually surprised how good it is. 

[The Bellie]

34 minutes ago, CherryBombs&Gasoline said:

I don't know if this counts as unpopular, but every trilogy song sounds better on Demolicious. Some of you have already mentioned the "artificial" sound and I agree, that's one of my main issues with the trilogy. Demolicious is different though. 

I prefer some on Demolicious (like Rusty James or Let Yourself Go), but not all of them (I prefer Uno version of Oh Love and Fell For You), and that's more due to Billie's vocal variations than to the evolution of the sound.

But yeah, Demolicious is great, and I find the atmosphere to be different from any album of the trilogy.

[Christian's Inferno!]

2 hours ago, CherryBombs&Gasoline said:

I don't know if this counts as unpopular, but every trilogy song sounds better on Demolicious. Some of you have already mentioned the "artificial" sound and I agree, that's one of my main issues with the trilogy. Demolicious is different though. 

Some songs I find better on Demolicious but for the most part, I don't see much of a difference for most songs. 99 Revolutions and Baby Eyes are definitely better on Demolicious though. I like the outro of 99R on Demolicious a lot more too. Some things kind of annoy me like the alternate lyrics on Let Yourself Go and Oh Love. I never thought I'd say this but I actual prefer the "Always fuck fucking with my head now" lyric than the alternate ones we got on Demolicious   Oh Love is interesting on Demolicious though, apart from the dumb alternate lyrics

Oh, also for Angel Blue, I prefer how Billie sings "Waking up the dead and everything will be alright" on the demo

[DeJennsitized]

16 hours ago, G-L-O-R-I-A said:

Dos is my favourite of the trilogy, and it might even be in my top 5 GD albums ever. I like every song on it, except for Wow! That's loud (which I don't dislike, I just find it kind of meh). Lady Cobra is one of my favourite songs ever.

Wow! That's Loud is my favourite song on Dos

I also love Angel Blue.  

[CherryBombs&Gasoline]

To be honest, I don't listen to the trilogy that often but whenever I do it, it feels like something is just missing. Some of the songs could have been so much better if they had taken some more time to work on them. There are some awesome songs on all three records that deserve way more attention but overall, there is not much that makes me want to listen to the trilogy again. Maybe it's the filler between the great songs. Demolicious is more raw and makes the songs more exciting.

However, these records are not as bad as some critics think. It's very easy to criticize someone for a decision that turned out to be wrong. But the same people would criticize the band for "dooing the same thing over and over again" or "selling out" or whatever. The trilogy was an experiment that wasn't as succesfull as it should have been. But if I compare the best songs from Uno, Dos and Tré to...I don't know, maybe "California" by Blink 182, I don't think that the trilogy is worse than that (which doesn't mean that California is bad, it just means that the criticism for the trilogy was heavier than it should have been).

[The Grohl]

11 hours ago, Zebahar said:

I don't like Sam Bayer being attached to Green Day projects

I like the videos he makes, but he's such an asshole. When I used to watch the Making of specials with Green Day, I cringed every time he was on screen.

[Eric]

Dookiefied fucking sucks, original Green Day material >>>>>>

[Shtrudel]

I listened to Warning today, may be the first time in a couple of years. In retrospective, even though I still like the album, I'm disappointed by it.

TL;DR - Lyrics are good, production is bad, "Minority" is overrated.

- I really don't know where to start from, so I'll pick an easy one. The cover art is their worst cover art in ever. Even most of the singles and EP's have better arts. It's just a picture of them walking down the street, which I guess is fine, but it lacks any context or meaning.
- Tracklist is good aside for "Deadbeat Holiday" and "Hold On". Not that they're bad (infact, they have good lyrics), but they're boring and I believe other songs serve the same purpose better (aaaaaand I can't really name one right now).
- Speaking of, lyrics in the entire album are damn clever. One of my favorite lines is " 'Trust' is a dirty word that comes only from such a liar" from "Church On Sunday".
- "Misery" is the most creative song they have ever wrote. Excellent lyrics once again, great humor and the instrumentation makes the song shine. I'll admit it's an odd one and I doubt I'll ever listen to it in repeat, but I really appreciate this song.
- I'm not that thrilled about "Minority". Honestly, a song about "being yourself", "don't let people tell you what to do", "go against the stream" and all that jazz isn't that original  (And while I have the opportunity, it's not exclusive to punk ideology either). It's a fun song to listen to, but I cringe a bit every time I listen to it.
Everyone likes to say how Green Day matured in this album, but then there's this song that feels like a "true-rebel" teen wrote it and is sure he's the coolest and most original thing in the universe.

- Gonna adress the elephant in the room (I guess), the production. The really-low-gain crunchy guitars work well in the trilogy, but here they don't (well, the guitars are way cleaner here than in the trilogy, but I think the comparison is appropriate). It compliments a few songs, but the rest of them suffer from this sound. When played live with dirtier sound, they sound like how they should've in the first place.
For those who don't mind or even like this aesthetic choice, I'm not done yet. Mike's bass is often too aggressive and straight up contradicts the guitars.
But what really ruins it for me, is the bleeding snare, which is something I only noticed today. You won't hear it that easily, but it's there. They tried to hide it in the final mix as much as they could, but I can still hear it. I think the fact that it's neither completely clean or all-out bleeding pisses me off even more. They should've recorded the drums again instead, and this time make sure the drums are fucking tuned.
Also, some songs are played faster live, which again, is more fitting. Also-Also, "Castaway" sounds better half-step up.

I really don't hate this album, but it's definitely not how I remembered it as.

[walking_c0ntradicti0n]

3 minutes ago, T@l said:

- Gonna adress the elephant in the room (I guess), the production. The really-low-gain crunchy guitars work well in the trilogy, but here they don't (well, the guitars are way cleaner here than in the trilogy, but I think the comparison is appropriate). It compliments a few songs, but the rest of them suffer from this sound. When played live with dirtier sound, they sound like how they should've in the first place.
 

I'm pretty sure the trilogy didn't have crunchy guitars except for demolicious, it's kinda one of the recurring complaints about the trilogy that people had.

[Shtrudel]

Just now, walking_c0ntradicti0n said:

I'm pretty sure the trilogy didn't have crunchy guitars except for demolicious, it's kinda one of the recurring complaints about the trilogy that people had.

And that's why I find the comparison appropriate, Both albums were criticized for having too clean guitars. Yet, the guitars in the trilogy are crunchier than in Warning.

[The Bellie]

5 hours ago, T@l said:

Tracklist is good aside for "Deadbeat Holiday" and "Hold On"

These may be my favorite songs from the album (and the way it's recorded). I don't get bored listening to them in repeat.

Well I listen to all the album, I personally agree that Minority doesn't distinguish itself among all the other songs, still watching it played live is a joy every time.

You haven't mentioned (I think) Waiting and Macy's Day Parade, I love these as well. So happy Waiting is also still played. Seeing the few existing videos of MDP played live made me want to learn how to play it at the guitar, it's the first song I've learned and it's real fun.

Not being an expert of sound, I have no problem with the instrumental aspect.

Warning is one of the few stuff I want to listen to when I feel a bit... I'm gonna listen to it today I think!

[CherryBombs&Gasoline]

I like Warning, but I think it's probably their weakest album in the post-Dookie-era (I mean everything between Dookie and AI). I don't really understand why so many people these days act if it's their best record or an underrated masterpiece. It's good, but not more than that.

Waiting is a killer song that deserves more attention. On the other hand, I agree that Minority isn't necessarily one of their best tracks. It's good, like the rest of the album, but it's not outstanding. 

I have to admit that it's been a while since a last listened to the whole album but I don't feel the connection that I feel to Dookie, Nimrod, Insomniac, AI, 21st CBD or RevRad. Maybe I have to give it another chance 

[Christian's Inferno!]

I'd rank Warning higher than all the 90's albums except maybe Dookie. In terms of the 00's, I wouldn't rank it higher than AI or 21CB (as those are my favourite albums). I would say it's better than each of the trilogy albums individually and I think it's pretty much equal to RevRad

There's not any song on the album I would skip. I think Minority is a great song, not GD's best but definite;y up there and I don't think it's overrated. The other singles are underrated, Misery is a great experimental track and there are a lot of other great catchy GD songs including Castaway, Blood Sex & Booze and Hold On

[Hermione]

12 hours ago, T@l said:

- I really don't know where to start from, so I'll pick an easy one. The cover art is their worst cover art in ever. Even most of the singles and EP's have better arts. It's just a picture of them walking down the street, which I guess is fine, but it lacks any context or meaning.

Agreed and the worst part is they had that iconic lightning man design right there on the back of the album booklet! Clearly that should've been used for the cover instead of hidden in there

[Shtrudel]

18 minutes ago, Hermione said:

Agreed and the worst part is they had that iconic lightning man design right there on the back of the album booklet! Clearly that should've been used for the cover instead of hidden in there

[image]

It WAS used
...in the Deluxe/Special edition or some shit. Sorry, not gonna buy something overpriced just for proper artwork.

6 hours ago, Kuromignonne said:

You haven't mentioned (I think) Waiting and Macy's Day Parade, I love these as well.

I havn't mentioned them indeed, but I like them. Waiting is in my opinion the best album off Warning, but only when played live.
Macy's Day Parade is another good song. While there are better songs in the "cheesy" category, this one is still nice at the very least.

[Hermione]

6 minutes ago, T@l said:

It WAS used
...in the Deluxe/Special edition or some shit. Sorry, not gonna buy something overpriced just for proper artwork.

 

Just googled it, damn! Oh well their loss that they didn't use the better cover for the main release.

[The Bellie]

2 minutes ago, T@l said:

I havn't mentioned them indeed, but I like them. Waiting is in my opinion the best album off Warning, but only when played live.

I prefer pretty much every Green Day song played live. I do agree that this song, Waiting, is one I prefer significantly more live than in its album version, though I love it even so.

2 minutes ago, T@l said:

Macy's Day Parade is another good song. While there are better songs in the "cheesy" category, this one is still nice at the very least.

I don't agree with "cheesy" at the very least! 

As for the booklet cover, I love that photo of them three. 

[pacejunkie punk]

The video is cheesy though. Chubby Billie in short hair and a suit looks like a frat boy.  😁

[The Bellie]

9 minutes ago, pacejunkie punk said:

Chubby Billie

Spoiler

 

[pouty bitch]

Wrong thread @Kuromignonne.

[localinsomniac]

50 minutes ago, T@l said:

It WAS used
...in the Deluxe/Special edition or some shit. Sorry, not gonna buy something overpriced just for proper artwork.

I havn't mentioned them indeed, but I like them. Waiting is in my opinion the best album off Warning, but only when played live.
Macy's Day Parade is another good song. While there are better songs in the "cheesy" category, this one is still nice at the very least.

It was used in the plastic outer sleeve, the artwork on the CD case itself is the same as the original release. Only difference art-wise between this release and the standard is the green envelope/sleeve, and the cardboard digipak, as opposed to standard jewel case.

Staying on-topic, I HATE Know Your Enemy as an opener. Its saving grace is that it gets the song out of the way.

[gaslight13]

34 minutes ago, pacejunkie punk said:

The video is cheesy though. Chubby Billie in short hair and a suit looks like a frat boy.  😁

I don't really have strong feelings one way or the other about the video, although I do think it conveys the depressing feeling the song gives me. Both through the black and white and through the way he walks with no purpose or zest for life. But I agree, he looks like a frat boy. Or honestly, more like when boys back in high school used to dress up for sports. They always wore dress clothes that were too big for them or just didn't fit right, haha. Not a good look. 

[RedundantIdiot]

I like Last of the American Girls, but I would've gone with The Static Age or Murder City as a single rather than LOTAG.