Warning (Green Day album)

Warning
Studio album by Green Day
Released	October 3, 2000 (2000-10-03)
Recorded	March–April 2000 at Studio 880, Oakland, California
Genre	Pop rock, pop punk,[1] alternative rock, folk punk
Length	41:14
Label	Reprise
Producer	Green Day
Green Day chronology
Nimrod (1997) Warning (2000) International Superhits! (2001)
Singles from Warning
"Minority" Released: August 31, 2000 "Warning" Released: December 11, 2000 "Waiting" Released: October 29, 2001 "Macy's Day Parade" Released: November 3, 2001

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
Robert Christgau	(A-)[3]
Entertainment Weekly	(B+)[4]
Los Angeles Times	[5]
NME	(5/10)[6]
PopMatters	(favorable)[7]
Rolling Stone	[8]
Slant Magazine	[9]
Spin	(6/10)[10]
The Village Voice	(favorable)[11]

Warning is the sixth studio album by American punk rock band Green Day. It was released on October 3, 2000 through Reprise Records. Building upon its predecessor, Nimrod (1997), the album eschewed the band's trademark punk rock sound and incorporated acoustic and pop rock elements. Warning was also Green Day's first album since Dookie (1994) that was not produced by Rob Cavallo, although he did have a hand in its production and was credited as executive producer.

Despite mixed criticism towards the band's stylistic change, the album received mostly positive reviews from music critics. Although it peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 chart, Warning represented the lowest commercial slump in the band's career, being their first album since signing to a major record label not to achieve multi-platinum status. The album has nonetheless been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, for shipments of 500,000 copies in the United States.^[12] Warning was reissued on vinyl on July 14, 2009.

Critical reception

Initial reaction

Warning received generally positive reviews from most music critics.^[13] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 72 based on 19 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".^[13] Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker perceived a maturity in the album's lyrical content and called its music "as peppy as any Green Day have recorded".^[4] Charlotte Robinson of PopMatters commended Billie Joe Armstrong's lyrics and noted the band for embracing "the pop bent that has always been a part of their sound".^[7] The A.V. Club's Stephen Thompson stated "Green Day has never made a record so slick and musically mature".^[14] Los Angeles Times writer Natalie Nichols wrote that the album "reveal[s] them shaking off the transitional aspects of 1997's 'Nimrod' to craft a more coherent, less aggressive but still rebellious collection that also draws on the even older pop traditions of Bob Dylan, the Beatles and the Who".^[5] "Metal" Mike Saunders of The Village Voice viewed Warning as the band's best work and compared its music to that of The Beatles' Rubber Soul (1965).^[11] In his consumer guide for The Village Voice, critic Robert Christgau gave the album an A- rating,^[3] indicating "the kind of garden-variety good record that is the great luxury of musical micromarketing and overproduction. Anyone open to its aesthetic will enjoy more than half its tracks".^[15] Christgau noted "professionalism, craft, artistic growth" rather than maturity in Armstrong's songwriting and elaborated on his change in musical direction, stating:

He's abandoning the first person. He's assuming fictional personas. And he's creating for himself the voice of a thinking left-liberal who 'want[s] to be the minority' and cautions against caution itself--a voice that scolds rather than whines, a nice age-appropriate shift. Crucially, his knack for simple punk tunes remains unchanged; also crucially, these do fine at moderate tempos, and one even gives off a whiff of Brecht-Weill.^[3]

—Robert Christgau

In contrast, NME's Andy Capper expressed a mixed response towards the band's "less electric, more organic sound" and stated "Older. More Mature. 'Warning' is the sound of a band losing its way".^[6] Greg Kot of Rolling Stone wrote that Armstrong "can't muster the same excitement for his more mature themes" and stated "Who wants to listen to songs of faith, hope and social commentary from what used to be snot-core's biggest-selling band?".^[8] Adam Downer of Sputnikmusic gave it three out of five stars and commented that it "consists of instant classics like Minority and Macy's Day Parade, but it also is filled with garbage songs as well".^[16] Spin writer Jesse Berrett stated "these maturity moves buoy muzzy be-yourselfism ... Nor does everything in the stylistic grab bag fit", but concluded by complimenting Armstrong's "earnestly good-hearted" lyrics and wrote that "this album is after... evidence that even the snottiest deserve grace and the chance to age into warmth".^[10] Q gave the album three out of five stars and described it as "Hugely likeable, terribly noisy and cute, as well as being jammed with proper pop songs".^[13] Neal Weiss of Yahoo! Music called the album "crafty pop-rock" and stated "Some might wish Green Day never decided to grow up like this, but others might consider it a starting point to take the band seriously".^[17] Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani perceived elements of folk and "pop sensibilities", writing that the album "displays just how well Green Day can construct pop songs".^[9]

Retrospect

In a retrospective review, Rolling Stone's Christian Hoard gave Warning four out of five stars and wrote that the band "fully focus on the textures that have always differentiated their sturdy grooves and simple melodies".^[18] Hoard called its songs "speedy, neatly packaged reinterpretations of pop-rock history, from the Beatles to Creedence Clearwater Revival to the Ramones themselves".^[18] Allmusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it "gleeful, unabashed fun" and complimented Green Day for "embracing their fondness for pop and making the best damn album they'd ever made".^[2] Erlewine expressed that the band displays "melodic ingenuity and imaginative arrangements" and elaborated on its musical significance, stating "Warning may not be an innovative record per se, but it's tremendously satisfying; it finds the band at a peak of songcraft and performance, doing it all without a trace of self-consciousness. It's the first great pure pop album of the new millennium".^[2] Dom Passantino of Stylus Magazine cited it as "the most influential album on the British pop landscape since 1996 (Spice, naturally)", noting it as a significant influence on "the two biggest bands in the UK at the moment, and indeed for the past few years, Busted and McFly".^[19] Passantino called Warning "a great album" and viewed that Green Day "seemed to be bored with their genre-medium, but simultaneously knowledgeable that any attempt to boundary-hop will end with them falling on their face".^[19]

Track listing

All lyrics written by Billie Joe Armstrong, except where noted, all music composed by Green Day.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Warning"	3:42
2.	"Blood, Sex and Booze"	3:33
3.	"Church on Sunday"	3:18
4.	"Fashion Victim"	2:48
5.	"Castaway"	3:52
6.	"Misery" (lyrics written by Green Day)	5:05
7.	"Deadbeat Holiday"	3:35
8.	"Hold On"	2:56
9.	"Jackass"	2:43
10.	"Waiting"	3:13
11.	"Minority"	2:49
12.	"Macy's Day Parade"	3:34
Total length:		41:14

Special edition UK version
No.	Title	Length
13.	"86" (Live in Prague)	3:01

Japanese and Australian version
No.	Title	Length
13.	"Brat" (Live in Japan)	1:42
14.	"86" (Live in Prague)	3:01

B-sides and outtakes

Song	Length	Release(s)
"Maria"	2:27	Original version; released as a b-side to "Waiting"; re-recorded for International Superhits! in 2001.
"Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely"	3:05	Originally performed by Hüsker Dü; released as a b-side to "Warning".
"Outsider"	2:17	Originally performed by the Ramones; released as a b-side to "Warning".
"Scumbag"	1:46	Released as a b-side to "Warning".

Personnel

^[20]

Musicians Green Day Billie Joe Armstrong – lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, mandolin Mike Dirnt – bass, backing vocals, farfisa on "Misery" Tré Cool – drums, percussion, accordion Additional musicians Stephen Bradley – horn Gary Meek – saxophone James Creepies – vibraslap David Campbell – string arrangements

Production Green Day - producers Rob Cavallo – executive producer Jack Joseph Buig - mixing Ken Allardyce - engineer Tone; Richard Ash - additional engineers Tal Herzburge - G3 operator Ten Jensen - mastering Marina Chavez - photography Chris Bilheimer - additional photography, art direction

Chart positions

Album Chart (2000) Peak position U.S. Billboard 200 4 Australia ARIA Album Chart 7 Austria Album Chart 14 Canadian Album Chart 2 France Album Chart 58 Germany Album Chart 21 Ireland Album Chart 13 Italy Album Chart 8 Japan Album Chart 2 Netherlands Album Chart 84 New Zealand Album Chart 20 Sweden Album Chart 25 Switzerland Album Chart 11 United Kingdom Album Chart 4

Singles Year Song Peak positions US Modern Rock [21] US Main- stream Rock [22] UK Top 40 New Zealand 2000 "Minority" 1 15 18 39 2000 "Warning" 3 24 27 37 2001 "Waiting" 26 — 34 — 2001 "Macy's Day Parade" — — — —

References

1. ^ Cinquemani, Sal (September 21, 2004). "Green Day: American Idiot". Slant Magazine. http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/review/green-day-american-idiot/492. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Review: Warning. Allmusic. Retrieved on 2010-08-05.
3. ^ ^{a b c} Christgau, Robert. "Consumer Guide: Warning". The Village Voice: October 17, 2000. (Christgau's website archive). Retrieved on 2010-08-05.
4. ^ ^{a b} Tucker, Ken. Review: Warning. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on 2010-08-05.
5. ^ ^{a b} Nichols, Natalie. "Review: Warning". Los Angeles Times: 67. October 1, 2000.
6. ^ ^{a b} Capper, Adam. Review: Warning. NME. Retrieved on 2010-08-05.
7. ^ ^{a b} Robinson, Charlotte. Review: Warning. PopMatters. Retrieved on 2010-08-05.
8. ^ ^{a b} Kot, Greg. Review: Warning. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2010-08-05.
9. ^ ^{a b} Cinquemani, Sal. Review: Warning. Slant Magazine. Retrieved on 2010-08-05.
10. ^ ^{a b} Berrett, Jesse. "Review: Warning". Spin: 213. December 2000.
11. ^ ^{a b} Saunders, "Metal" Mike. Review: Warning. The Village Voice. Retrieved on 2010-08-05.
12. ^ RIAA
13. ^ ^{a b c} Warning (2000): Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2010-08-05.
14. ^ Thompson, Stephen. Review: Warning. The A.V. Club. Retrieved on 2010-08-05.
15. ^ Christgau, Robert. CG Keys to Icons: Grades 1990-. Robert Christgau. Retrieved on 2010-08-05.
16. ^ Downer, Adam. Review: Warning. Sputnikmusic. Retrieved on 2010-08-05.
17. ^ Weiss, Neal. Review: Warning. Yahoo! Music. Retrieved on 2010-08-05.
18. ^ ^{a b} Hoard, Christian. "Review: Warning". Rolling Stone: 347–348. November 1, 2004.
19. ^ ^{a b} Passantino, Dom. Review: Warning. Stylus Magazine. Retrieved on 2010-08-05.
20. ^ Warning liner notes. Retrieved 2011-10-13
21. ^ "Green Day Album & Song Chart History – Alternative Songs". Billboard. http://www.billboard.com/#/artist/green-day/chart-history/54578?f=377&g=Singles. Retrieved 2010-10-26. 
22. ^ "Green Day - Billboard Singles". allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/green-day-p69310/charts-awards/billboard-singles. Retrieved 2010-10-26. 

External links

• Warning at Discogs
• Warning at Metacritic