Green Day - Nimrod : 25th anniversary

    As Rob Cavallo - Green Day's producer from 1994's major-label breakthrough Dookie (10 million global sales) until American Idiot (16 million) a decade later - has said, Nimrod was a forebear to American Idiot. From the rudimentary sketch of Hitchin' A Ride to the polka of King For A Day, it's an experimental album to test the boundaries of what constituted 90s punk. If American Idiot was their White Album, then Nimrod was their Revolver a study in the themes that would accelerate their upbeat melodic approach underscored with morose antagonism into a global brand.         

    Post-Dookie, Green Day were dogged by accusations of selling out by the scene that birthed them, but also criticized for apparent punk inauthenticity by the likes of John Lydon. Harangued by both sides, it's no surprise that Nimrod is shot through with alienation and themes of spite, malice and rage.

    Not least vocalist/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong’s vitriolic attacks (the frantic pop-punk lash of Platyus (I Hate You), the monotone Take Back, the freewheeling Prosthetic Head) on Tim Yohannon - founder of Berkeley's Maximum Rock N'Roll zine and all-ages punk venue 924 Gilman - both important in the band's development. As its title suggests, the intention of landmark acoustic ballad Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) was barbed sarcasm rather than the reflective poignancy since interpreted by its multiple TV and movie soundtrack inclusions.

    Even criticized in their early days for their antithetical hardcore Buzzcockian love-song whimsy (as Armstrong himself claims), he always thought of himself foremost as a pop star. Nimrod expurgated those constraints of their origins prior to global dominance.