Warning

Japanese edition of their forthcoming album features 2 bonus tracks, live versions of 'Brat' and '86'. Includes the forthcoming single 'Warning' as well as 'Fashion Victim', 'HoldOn', 'Blood Sex & Death', 'Church On Sunday', 'Minority', 'Deadbeat Holiday', 'Macy's Day Parade' & more. Other tracksinclude the latest single 'Warning' along with 11 others. 14 tracks in all. 2000 release. Standard jewel case.

After two years off following the release of the genre-expanding Nimrod, the usually insouciant trio Green Day are open to some weighty self-analysis. Gone are the raging rants, cartoonish antics, and anthropological musings about the punk scene, replaced by an introspection that brings to mind Michael Stipe and Bono. Like the U2 frontman, Billie Joe Armstrong still hasn't found what he's looking for, but he knows where he's been and is eager to move past the days when Green Day were considered the clown princes of rock. Witness "Jackass," which cautions, "Everybody loves a joke, but no one likes a fool." Proving that they aren't fools, Green Day take a substantial step forward, exploring new rhythms, sonics, and subjects. While many of the tracks are still cheeky and infectious, the deceptively simple melodies belie a quest for meaning, faith, and fulfillment. There's a tentative optimism here that's tempered by irony and flashes of self-loathing. Still, Warning transcends the darkness that clouded 1995's Insomniac. No longer so under the sway of the Buzzcocks and the Ramones, this time Armstrong and company dip into the early rock canon--the Beatles and Bob Dylan, among them. As a result, their first self-produced album is more "Nowhere Man" than "Blitzkrieg Bop." --Jaan Uhelszki