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Rating: When Green Day were still truly green and in full bloom, and not the band they are today...
The second and also the last album for the independent label Lookout, before moving definitively to a major with the following "Dookie", this album stands out for its simplicity.
As easy as you like, but still genuine and fresh enough to produce 16 songs, in the vein of the most classic pop punk, which would inspire the birth of many very similar bands in the future.
Let's start by saying that sound-wise this "Kerplunk" does not differ much from its much more famous successor, in fact, I must say that some tracks that compose the album, if they had come out later, could have achieved the success of the subsequent singles. The reference is to the beautiful "2000 light years away" which follows the classic style of the band, pop punk but done well. It is followed by the equally beautiful "One for the razorblade" and my favorite piece by the Green Days, "Welcome to paradise", which will later be slightly modified and included in "Dookie". Basically, the Dookie version is slightly longer, and unlike the first, the background choruses of the refrain are removed, and the riffing is perfected and made cleaner, apart from these small differences it's the same.
Then we pause for a moment with the ballad "Christie road". And it would be fair to say that the ballads on this record, when compared to "When I come around", are even superior. The prize for the most fun track on the record goes to "Dominated love slave", a song with country-folk traits written and sung by the new drummer Tre Cool. Meanwhile, "Private ale" and "One on my lies" are two other great pieces of pure pop punk. And here comes the second ballad "No one knows", very nice, characterized by a particular intro that captures you like never before, one of the best on the record. From 13 to 16, we find the songs from a previous EP "Sweet children", with "Best thing in town" highlighted as the best of the four (very hc punk old school), "Strangeland", and the Who cover of "My generation", performed well and closed with final belches that make you smile. You will notice a big difference between the last tracks and the rest of the album from a musical point of view. In fact, the pieces contained in the EP are also the last very fast and raw pieces that Green Day will make (alas). Splendid and truly punk songs like the excellent and very fast "Best things in town" will not be heard again in the future.
Qualitatively better than the decent start, in my opinion, "Kerplunk" is the most beautiful Green Day album along with "Dookie", in some respects even superior to the latter.
The band would later sign with a major, increasingly losing the sound and freshness of the origins, and even ending up producing partial flops like "Insomniac" (truly ugly) and "Warning", almost being forgotten until their comeback in 2004 with "American Idiot". Many fans have hoped for a successor worthy of "Dookie" for years after its release, a "Dookie2" in short, but instead of looking for it later, know that the best continuation of Dookie is precisely this earlier "Kerplunk" from 1991 and certainly not "American Idiot", which is a decent work but remains stylistically far from the Californian trio's beginnings.
Of course, if you want high-school perfectionism, ultra-elaborate melodies, and clean, pristine sound, turn to other bands or other genres; here there's only room for the enjoyment of hearing a band in its early days and still untainted. Finally, a final note: the record present here (along with the first and "Dookie") was remastered last year, improving the original production that was not at all excellent.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 2000 Light Years Away (02:24)
I sit alone in my bedroom
Staring at the walls
I've been up all damn night long
My pulse is speeding
My love is yearning
I hold my breath and close my eyes
And dream about her
Cause she's 2000 light years away
She holds my malakite so tight so..
Never let go
Cause she's 2000 Light years away
I sit outside and watch the sunrise
Look out as far as I can
I can't see her, but in the distance
I hear some laughter
We laugh together
Then I hold my breath and close my eyes
And dream about her
Cause she's 2000 light years away.
03 Welcome to Paradise (03:30)
Dear mother, can you hear me whinin'?
It's been three whole weeks since I have left your home
This sudden fear has left me tremblin'
Cause now it seems I am out here on my own
And I'm feeling so alone
Pay attention to the cracked streets and the broken homes
Some call it slum, some call it nice
I want to take you through a wasteland I like to call my home
Welcome to Paradise
A gunshot rings out at the station
Another urchin snaps and left dead on his own
It makes me wonder why I'm still here
For some strange reason it's still now feeling like my home
I'm never gonna go
Pay attention to the cracked streets and the broken homes
Some call it slum, some call it nice
I want to take you through a wasteland I like to call my home
Welcome to Paradise
Dear mother, can you hear me laughin'?
It's been six whole months since I have left your home
It makes me wonder why I'm still here
For some strange reason it's still now feeling like my home
I'm never gonna go
Pay attention to the cracked streets and the broken homes
Some call it slum, some call it nice
I want to take you through a wasteland I like to call my home
Welcome to Paradise
05 Private Ale (02:26)
I wonder down these streets all by myself
Think of my future now
I just don't know
I don't seem to care
I stop to notice that
I'm by your home
I wonder if you're sitting all alone
Or is your boyfriend there
Because I feel so right
Let my imagination go
Until you're in my sight
And through my veins temptation flows
So I sit down here on the hard concrete
Think of my future now
I just don't know
I don't seem to care So I sit across the street from your home
I wonder if you're sitting all alone
Or is your boyfriend there
07 One of My Lies (02:19)
When I was younger I thought the world circled around me
But in time I realized I was wrong
My immortal thoughts turned into just dreams of a dead future
It was a tragic case of my reality
Do you think you're indestructible
And no one can touch you
Well I think you're disposable
And it's time you knew the truth
Cause it's just one of my lies!
Why does my life have to be so small?
Yet death is forever
And does forever have a life to call its own?
Don't give me an answer cause you
Only know as much as I know
Unless you're been there once
Well I hardly think so
I used to pray all night
Before I lay myself down
My mother said it was right
Her mother said it too...
Why?
08 80 (03:39)
My mental stability reaches its bitter end
And all my sense are coming unglued
Is there any cure for this disease
Someone called love
Not as long as there are girls like you
Everything she does questions my mental health
It makes me loose control
I just can't trust myself
If someone can hear me slap some sense in me
But you turn your head and I end up talking to myself
Anxiety has got me strung out and frustrated
So I loose my head or I band it up against the wall
Sometimes I wonder if I should be left alone
And lock myself up in a padded room
I'd sit and spew my guts out to the open air
No one wants to hear a drunken fool
I do not mind if this goes on
Cause now it seems I'm too far gone
I must admit I enjoy myself
80 please keep taking me away
09 Android (03:00)
Hey old man in woman's shoes
I wonder if he knows I think he's crazy
When he was young did he have dreams of wearing woman's shoes
And being crazy
It makes me wonder when
I grow to be that age
Will I be walking down the street
Begging for your spare change
Or will I grow that old?
Will I still be around?
The way I carry on I'll end up
Six feet underground and waste away...
When the old man was in school
Did the golden rule make him go crazy?
Or did he hide away from hopes
Behind a smile and smoking dope
It's crazy
It seems so frightening
Time passes by like lightning
Before you know you're struck down
I always waste my time on
My chemical emotions
It keeps my head spinning around.
11 Who Wrote Holden Caulfield? (02:44)
A thought burst in my head
And I need to tell you
It's news that I for thought
Was it just a dream
That happened long ago?
I think I just forgot
Well it hasn't been the first time
And it sure does drive me mad
There's a boy who fogs his world and now he's getting lazy
there's no motivation and frustration makes him crazy
He makes a plan to take a stand but always ends up sitting
Someone help him up or he's gonna end up quitting
I shuffle though my mind
To see if I can find
The words I left behind
Was it just a dream
That happened long ago?
Oh well...
Nevermind.
12 Words I Might Have Ate (02:32)
Now it seems I can't keep my mind of you
My brain drifts back to better days we've been through
Like sitting on blacktop of the school grounds
The love I bitched about I finally found
But now it's gone and I take the blame
So there's nothing I can do but take the pain
Why?
Now I dwell on what you remind me of
A sweet young girl who sacrificed her love
As for me... I am blind without a cause
And now I reazlied what I have lost
It was something real that I could have had
Now I play the fool whose stable soul's gone bad
Why?
Tell me the words I might have said
That's pumping pressure deep inside my head
Was it bad enough to be too late?
Just tell me the words I might have ate.
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By silviante90
It is a rather pleasant album, with catchy yet energetic and lively melodies.
The album closes with the cover of 'My Generation' by The Who, which truly has nothing to envy of the original.
