Green Day
INTERNATIONAL SUPERHITS!
(REPRISE)

The interesting thing about Green Day’s ascent to rock superstardom is the moxie with which they’ve pursued their pop-punk goals. While the music world that houses them has been ushering countless grunge, teen-pop, rap-metal, R&B, and hip-hop stars through its revolving doors, this indefatigable East Bay trio have steadily polished their scrappy, tuneful racket to an accomplished gleam.

On their new greatest-hits set, that impressive commitment is as easy to spot in the crowd as singer Billie Joe Armstrong’s green hair. Although nothing from the group’s early days on Berkeley indie Lookout! is included, cuts from the 1994 Reprise smash Dookie, like "Basket Case" and "Longview," provide the cheap thrills with which the band enticed a nation of nascent Blink-182 fans, and later stuff like "Hitchin’ a Ride" proves they could complicate their three-chord arsenal when they wanted to. And as on last year’s Warning, the disc’s two new songs, "Maria" and "Poprocks & Coke," suggest that these guys may still find more life in the form without resorting to warmed-over DJ scratches or lame dick jokes.

Issue Date: December 20 - 27, 2001

Back to the Music table of contents.