Nimrod

Nimrod
Studio album by Green Day
Released	October 14, 1997
Recorded	May 1997 – July 1997
Genre	Punk rock, pop punk, alternative rock
Length	49:09
Label	Reprise
Producer	Rob Cavallo, Green Day
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Entertainment Weekly (B-) link Rolling Stone link Rolling Stone Album Guide link Pitchfork Media (7.0/10) link Robert Christgau link
Green Day studio album chronology
Insomniac (1995) Nimrod (1997) Warning (2000)
Singles from Nimrod
"Hitchin' a Ride" Released: September 22, 1997 "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" Released: December 23, 1997 "Redundant" Released: May 26, 1998 "Nice Guys Finish Last" Released: March 23, 1999

Nimrod is the fifth album by the punk rock band Green Day, released on October 14, 1997 on Reprise Records. The album entered the Billboard U.S. charts at #10, and achieved double platinum status, although it did not revive Green Day's sales to the level of Dookie. Nimrod achieved critical respect and yielded the acoustic hit "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)." The album was released in Europe as an HDCD. The album has sold over five million copies worldwide.

Music and lyrics

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Nimrod is more musically varied and has a less abrasive sound than previous Green Day albums. The album includes fast-paced punk rock songs ("Reject", "Platypus (I Hate You)","Nice Guys Finish Last"), slower-paced pop punk songs ( "Redundant","Walking Alone", "Worry Rock"), ska punk ("King for a Day"), surf rock ("Last Ride In"), hardcore punk ("Take Back"), and an acoustic ballad ("Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)").

Billie Joe Armstrong's lyrics are slightly more sophisticated than in earlier compositions. "Hitchin' a Ride", "All the Time" and "Walking Alone" are about drinking. "Platypus (I Hate You)" and "Take Back" are basically hate songs. "King for a Day" is about a cross-dresser. "Prosthetic Head" is about Armstrong's opinion that people from Hollywood are fake. "Haushinka" was written about a girl Armstrong met on a Japanese tour.

"Reject" came from an incident where a boy received Green Day's previous album, Insomniac for his eighth birthday from his grandma. The boy started singing Green Day's songs (with explicit lyrics), and his mother got angry and wrote a complaint letter to Armstrong; Armstrong wrote an actual letter back to her, and this song was based on his response.

"The Grouch" and "Redundant" are both about married life. In the former, Billie Joe is complaining about his family dragging him down, and the latter can be construed as an apology to his wife.

"Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" was written when Billie Joe was "breaking up with a girl that was moving to Ecuador, and [he] was trying to be as understanding about it as [he] could." Some also feel the song was written in response to the punk community's (specifically, 924 Gilman Street) rejection of Green Day after Dookie went platinum. (The story behind this song was seemingly the basis for VH1's Behind the Music episode on the band.) ^[1]

Nimrod was reissued on vinyl on June 16, 2009^[2].

Track listing

All lyrics written by Billie Joe Armstrong, all music composed by Green Day.

B-sides and outtakes

Charts

Album

Personnel

• Billie Joe Armstrong – guitar, harmonica, lead vocals
• Mike Dirnt – bass, backing vocals, baseball bat (on "Desensitized")
• Tré Cool – drums, bongos, tambourine
• David Campbell – horn arrangements, string arrangements
• Rob Cavallo – production
• Petra Haden – violin
• Gabrial McNair – horn

References