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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Green Day' second album remastered, January 10, 2007
You may have had a hard time finding this, or the album 1,039 Smoothed Out Slappy hours for the past few months. This is because these album were originally recorded for, and have been distributed since their release, by indie label Lookout Records. So why would that give you trouble finding them? Well, in 2005, Green Day rescinded their masters from the label, giving copyright control to their current label Reprise/Warner Bros.
So now we have this Kerplunk reissue. How does it measure up? In terms of artwork/packaging, everything is exactly the same as it used to be except it says Reprise instead of Lookout on the back. There is no mention of this being a reissue. Pop the disc in though, and you will find the sound has been remastered. Kerplunk always had sort of a quiet sound to it. With this remaster, the volume is louder and all of the instruments and vocals have been enhanced, making them stand out more and sound more crisp.
The album opens with 2,000 Light Years Away which is a Green Day classic and features their signature pop punk sound. The version of Welcome To Paradise on here is a different recording than what would wind up on 1994's Dookie (They re-recorded it for that album). The song is a classic though. One Of My Lies is another pop punk highlight and then there's the underrated No One Knows in all of its teenage confusion glory. The inclusion of the last 4 songs are also interesting because you get to hear Billie and Mike in the band Sweet Children before they had fully laid out the Green Day blueprint.
I'm not going to review every song. Basically, if you have heard Green Day on the Dookie - Nimrod albums, the songs on here will sit at home with you. The only difference is, they are more raw sounding. Billie Joe's voice is also more kidlike sounding. You can tell they were still perfecting their craft on here, but it's a fun listen and is a must for any fan of Green Day or pop punk.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome CD!, July 17, 2007
Got this CD a little bit ago and have not stopped listening to it! Nothing compares to the early Green Day music.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of their best, October 10, 2007
Kerplunk Review
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The album is fantastic and it has some of my all time favorite Green Day songs on it. "Christie Road," "No One Knows," "80," "One of My Lies," "2000 Light Years Away," and the first glance at one of their stadium anthems, "Welcome to Paradise." Their budget to record this CD was not stellar at all, I believe I read that they only got a couple thousand from their label at the time for it, but it is a step up from the quality of their first full length (which is also QUITE fantastic!).
I have always been a big believer of getting every album from a band that I love, and I got this album in an interesting order. I had "Dookie" first, then "Nimrod", then "Insomniac", then I bought this album, "1,039 / Smoothed Out Slappy Hours," and "Warning" all on the same day. There is a logical progression between each album (until you get to Warning that is), and Kerplunk showed some early signs of "Nimrod" with the guys not always using tons of overdrive (as was the case on "Dookie" and "Insomniac"). This album holds up very well with their later work though, and I recommend it to anyone really wanting to get to know the band. I do however know a few people that listen to "American Idiot" and nothing else, and that is a bummer, because they have some other work out there that is really amazing!
My Defense of the Band
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I would just like to say to the MAJORITY of nay-sayers out there that are bashing Green Day for their success derived from "American Idiot": KNOCK IT OFF. It's ridiculous! The band has not sold out, at all. The music on "American Idiot" is amazing, and is the next logical progression for the band! They lost a lot of fans when they released "Warning," but come on--Billie was writing an album while thinking more of his children, do we have any right to say there is something wrong with that? "Warning" happens to be one of my favorite Green Day albums--maybe the one I have listened to the most. It really has some amazing lyrics to it and some REALLY underrated songs, but enough about that album.
The issue is, people don't like it when a band that used to fit in their pocket gets too big to hide anymore. There is already a review on here on someone bragging about how no one knows about "Kerplunk," so owning it and liking it is like being a part of a special club. THAT'S RIDICULOUS! The DREAM of any band is to make it big, and these boys have not sacrificed anything in their music. Don't believe me? Let's try this then: take "American Idiot" (the song), that song could easily be put on "Insomniac" (unfortunately it kind of already is, haha, if you listen to the riff on "Walking Contradiction," the songs are really similar); "Letterbomb" really seems like it should be a B-Side to a single from "Nimrod," seeing as the distortion Billie Joe uses is VERY similar to that of the "Nimrod" album's guitar work; then we have the Green Day standards in "3 minute and under" rock songs with "St. Jimmy" and "She's A Rebel", jumping back to their roots and rocking better than any other punk band out there.
The fact is, these boys made a very bold move putting out the album that they did. People whine about how they aren't playing the "skateboarding" music anymore or how they're not singing about masturbation, like on "Dookie", but honestly--there is 10 YEARS between "Dookie" and "American Idiot," do you really expect them to never grow up? It is necessary for musicians to grow to stay alive and the REALLY admirable thing about this band is how they haven't sacrificed who they are to put out great music.
My advice to all you nay-sayers-why don't you just drop it? People just complain about bands when they get to big and it's ridiculous. Half the people that complain about Fall Out Boy now used to be the biggest fans of them, same with Good Charlotte and Blink 182--once the band gets "too big", there becomes a point where it's "cool" to disagree with everyone and say that they are not cool. Well, here's the truth--I have every studio album from Green Day, three live albums, their greatest hits and rarities CD, either 4 or 5 vinyls from the band, and a slew of singles--I'd like to consider myself an authority on the band, and they are FANTASTIC. If all you are doing is whining because they are too big to fit in your pocket, then be honest with yourself and drop it.
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