Green Day, Dookie

You know what you're getting into from the title. The lyrics are sophomoric and none too sophisticated ("Sassafras Roots" was the dimmest bulb) and some of the riffs ring samey, but it starts hard ("Burnout"), goes fast and doesn't really stop. Plus, for as simplistic as the themes are, their tongue's in their collective cheeks enough that the joke might be on me ("When I Come Around" and "Longview"). This brand of punk has a little too much bubblegum for the hardestcore ("Pulling Teeth," "She") and their intermittent slower moments don't quite connect (especially "F.O.D.", though I salute the venom), but those are brief and a matter of degree. It's iconoclastic, ebullient and irreverent, the kind of album that really sticks to the wall. (Content: S- and F-bombs, adult themes.)

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