So why is Green Day’s Insomniac on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
Times and places, places and times. Music really can be a time machine, to slightly steal and borrow from the brilliant Mad Men episode, “The Wheel.”
I lived in Astoria, Queens in New York City in the late 1990s, and would often jog in Astoria Park, which affords a great view across the East River of Manhattan’s Upper East Side. It reminded me, in a funny life-imitating-art way, of the interstitial scenes from the video game, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!!, from the original Nintendo Entertainment System, where your boxing character’s coach (Doc Lewis) would ride his bicycle next to you while you jog as part of your (digital) training for the next fight*.
* Doc Lewis would also offer sage wisdom between rounds such as, “Dodge his punch, then counterpunch!”
I would listen to mixtapes while I jogged, at a volume that my ears are probably still recovering from to this day. And if I was really into a particular mixtape, I would listen to it until I had to do that thing where you stick a #2 pencil into the cassette “hub” to “tighten” the tape that has come loose.
The time machine part relates to one particular mixtape that was jam-packed with ska punk and punk rock. It had a lot of Voodoo Glow Skulls and The Suicide Machines on it, and it also had one of my all-time favorite Green Day songs on it.
“Walking Contradiction,” off of Insomniac.
Even after the massive success of debut album Dookie, there was a period of time when the combination of “Brain Stew” and “Jaded” – often played back-to-back on rock radio à la Led Zeppelin’s iconic “Heartbreaker” segueing into the hilarious and rocking “Living Loving Maid (She’s Just A Woman)” – was one of Green Day’s best known song combos.
The mid-tempo, staccato rhythm of “Brain Stew” does a great job of setting up the wild punk rock release of “Jaded,” and the combo sounds just as fresh today as it did back in the mid-‘90s.
Like so many Green Day albums, there are really no weak spots on Insomniac, which is so crazily remarkable.
The opening five tracks play together so seamlessly, and the second through fourth tracks – “Brat,” “Stuck With Me,” and “Geek Stink Breath” – particularly stand out just like those slots in a World Series-contending batting order should.
Some stats & info about Green Day – Insomniac
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Alternative Rock, Pop Punk, Punk Rock, SF Bay Area Bands
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4 out of 5 stars
- When was Insomniac released? 1995
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #228 out of 1,000
Green Day’s Insomniac on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from Green Day’s Insomniac that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
I have no belief, but I believe I’m a walking contradiction and I ain’t got no right.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.