Albums that Made Me: Nimrod

 

I purchased Green Day's Nimrod sometime around 1998, when I was thirteen or so. I can't recall my exact impressions of the album at the time, but I remember liking it a great deal, although I did kind of think that Green Day was perhaps past their time of cultural relevancy, though of course my teenage ass wouldn't have put it that way. Green Day was cool, but they were on their way out. This is mostly bullshit; Green Day have more or less stayed a popular act throughout their entire career, but Blink 182's Enema of the State would soon be released two years later in 1999, and Blink 182 would end up being the more popular punk/pop band of the millennium. Which is a shame, really. Blink 182 took the snotty adolescent angst that Green Day popularized and dumbed it down for the Attitude Era, and although I have never really listened to their discography besides their big hits, they never seemed to expand their sound or evolve beyond a shitty-Green Day knock-off. Anyways, I just listened to Nimrod again after not hearing it for two decades, and man, it's a kick-ass album. Nice Guys Finish Last and Grouch are the clever sort of punk you expect from Billy Joe, whereas the pure power-pop of Redundant and Haushinka feel like songs taken from the early Sixties, with their deft touches of major/minor melody and simple pop chords. There is even a little surf instrumental, entitled Last Ride In. Of course, Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) would be the biggest hit, and while its inclusion in every graduation procession since has ruined it as a stand alone piece of music, it was a pretty big departure for the band at the time. While I'm not a big fan of American Idiot, latter day Green Day, with their concept albums and wider sound, wouldn't have been possible without the experimentation of Nimrod. For one of my first records, it holds up really well, definitely better than Hootie and the Blowfish's second album (which I barely listened to, since I can't recall its name) or The Mighty-Mighty Bosstone's That Impression that I Get (which is still probably one of the greatest one-hit wonder singles ever).