Review Summary: Nimrod isn't a bad album, after losing favor with the release of Insomniac, Green Day went a little experimental, and most of the experimental material is quite enjoyable. The one question that does come to mind though is why eighteen songs? A few too m
Green Day returned from a two year hiatus in 1997 a very different band then the one who created the dark Insomniac. With the better part of their "punk" days behind them the band expanded on their experimental material with Nimrod; however, they may not have been quite ready to delve into the different sounds of the album.
1. Nice Guys Finish Last: This song is a good start for the album. Mike Dirnt's solid bassline and Tre Cool's drumming during the verse keep the song going until it hits the revved up chorus. The song also represents a departure from the older material which is seen throughout the album. Lyrically the song is Billie Joe Armstrong's attack on suck ups and is fairly solid.
2. Hitchin A Ride: Here's where the new Green Day really pops up. A "Stray Cats" like anthem, Hitchin A Ride is one of the albums best tracks with a steady rhythm keeping the song interesting until it builds to the blaring chorus of "I'm off the wagon and I'm hitchin a ride!" The lyrics are interesting but a bit hard to understand as Billie Joe sneers more than anything, but it fits perfectly for this type of song.
3. The Grouch: A return to the old, the Grouch does send the album back a bit. The song sounds like it would fit better on a record like Dookie, but it does provide a bit of relief for fans worried that the old Green Day sound has died. The lyrics are comical "The wife's a nag and the kids ***ing up/ I don't have sex cause I can't get it up," but the song just feels out of place at this point, though, on its own is a decent tune.
4. Redundant: They weren't kidding with that title. Everyone likes a good ballad now and then, but this song just seems to drag on with Billie Joe playing a very "redundant" riff set to his lyrics about lost passion, perhaps a song that would have been better served had it remained in the bedroom. The rhythm features nothing interesting either.
5. Scattered: This number's interesting for certain. With a chorus a bit reminiscent of The Ramones "Bonzo Goes To Bitburg" the song has potential, but lyrically this one can't hold itself up, with another song about love? or passion perhaps again being the better word. The bridge and the final chorus are really quite good but the beginning drags the entire song down a bit.
6. All The Time: Billie Joe's guitar riff dominates this number, and is liable to be caught in listeners heads for days. The chorus only adds to the catchiness with its quick rhyming scheme "Heirlooms Huffing Fumes and I'm picking up the pace" and "Sugar fix Dirty Tricks and a trick question." However, the song is lyrically about nothing, either nothing of any interest or just nothing it was hard to tell, and the lack of a proper chorus leaves something to be desired.
7. Worry Rock: This is another song really dominated and perhaps dragged down by a generic guitar riff that really prevents it from being anything special, although, the lyrics are enjoyable, "A knock down dragged out fight, Fat lips and open wounds, Another wasted night, no one will take the fall." But yet another sappy slower tune makes the listeners wonder exactly what happened to a band that two years earlier was at the peak of their snort core attitude.
8. Platypus (I Hate You): Well the attitude is back. In what can only be described as a song brimming with hate, culminating into a bridge, where Billie Joe screams out countless obscenities. Perhaps he was just as tired of the previous sappy songs as we were.
9. Uptight: Without a doubt should have been a single. Up to this point Uptight is the best song on the album, some palm muting and steady rhythm allows Billie Joe to throw out humourous contradictions in his lyrics through the first two verses, "Got a new start on a dead end road" "Peaked out on reaching new lows" "The perfect picture of bad health." This all comes together in the chorus of "Uptight I'm a nag with a gun yeah all night suicides last call." The chorus's uninterrupted repetition turns the song into a headbanging anthem that would have been a much smarter choice for a single than "Redundant."
10. Last Ride In: Okay, it's an instrumental, but this is a different band than before. The song has a driving surfer feel too it, and would be perfect if I was trying to fall asleep. But at 3:47 the song becomes far too repetitive and long, perhaps a two minute version would have suited the album better.
11. Jinx: Just another generic (filler song?) I hesistate to say filler because when you have an eighteen track album one would assume that all the songs are of reasonable importance, but Jinx and Last Ride In are both very expendable, however Jinx does segue into Haushinka, another one of the album's shining moments.
12. Haushinka: Some loping drums keep the verses in tact while the song builds into a chorus of "This girl has gone far away, now she's gone," a catchy, repetitive line that keeps the song fun, and Mike Dirnt's back up vocals on the bridge really help the song along.
13. Walking Alone: This is another song that feels like your average teenage garage band playing all the chords they know and looking around for approval. It attempts to differentiate with a little harmonica play, but that turns out sketchy at best, and it joins Jinx and Redundant as major disappointments.
14. Reject: This song's lyrics are partially taken from a letter Billie wrote in response to a parent's letter stating he was a horrible influence. The classic "I do what I want and you do what you're told" is the driving message behind the song. In all it's an okay tune, but there isn't any spark. It's hard to define this one, but more or less it's just missing the punch of some other Green Day tunes and feels more like a Shenanigans hit.
15. Take Back: Wow, it's understandable, you wanted to experiment, but stick to something that you know, at least a little. A screamo or whatever you classify this song as, just doesn't even fit. The album has been different, but it hasn't been harder than previous releases and it doesn't warrant something like this. You can tell the writing was forced and was probably just an attempt to keep the haters honest on the Punk or not debate.
16. King For A Day: A song about dressing in woman's clothing, sounds like some Green Day fun, and the addition of a horn player really helps the song along, and in fact adds most of the circusy, fun sound to the song.
17. Good Riddance (Time of your Life): There isn't much to say about this one. Everybody knows the graduation, wedding, funeral accoustic ballad, and even after all that exposure the song doesn't lose it's charm. Is anyone shocked to learn it was written around the Dookie days. The albums best song and probably the song that will continue to be played on radio station forty years after Green Day fades away.
18. Prosthetic Head: Green Day takes a risk here. Most people would kill to be able to finish there album with Good Riddance, and yet for whatever reason, they decided to stick another track on the end. My guess is to end on an upbeat note, and that's basically what Prosthetic Head is good for. With a meandering verse and an explosion of a chorus the song doesn't belong in a category with the generic songs, but it also doesn't deserve to be with Good Riddance or Hitchin A Ride either. A meh note to close on for Nimrod.
