Album of the Day

Reportedly, singer-songwriter Billie Joe Armstrong spent time listening to BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME while prepping his band's sixth studio album, and just as that earlier record marked a major transition for Bob Dylan, so WARNING did for Green Day. The pop-punk approach for which the Bay Area trio was famous remained in spirit - there is a confident, anti-authoritarian feel to much of this - but the sound owed more to 1960s classic rock and folk in its adventurous instrumentation and arrangements. You can do that sort of thing when you've got songs as catchy as “Minority,” “Waiting” and the title track, all of which were Top 40 hits. What Allmusic called “the first great pure pop album of the new millennium” turns 20 tomorrow, and the gold-certified WARNING is a reminder that Green Day is at its best when challenging expectations.