Warning

The album's darn spooky good... Shelving the old Green Day wall of guitars (Dookie and Insomniac) in favor of the youngest (and best) Pete Townshend mod-clanky buzz opens up the band's sound dramatically; it's airy and spacious, lots of room for the vocals. The whole thing breathes with neat ambiences.

Warning may not only be the most beautiful Green Day LP but also the bravest. [#48, p.93]

Warning may not be an innovative record, per se -- it's a pop album through and through -- but it's tremendously satisfying, finding the band at a peak of songcraft and performance. There hasn't been a better pure pop album since Supergrass' In It for the Money, another record by a young band that did it all and did it without a trace of self-consciousness.

The band's musical range has also broadened a bit.

Old fans who would have enjoyed such messages in the past might not like them packaged with such clean music, but they'd be missing the point. Real old school punks know that punk is about following your own path, and that's just what Green Day are doing.

At first, it may sound void of the instantly accessible pile of hits from Dookie and the handful more from Insomniac, but the album's social conscience and cunning lyrics make it a Warning to be heeded.

The California-based trio continues its exploration of more straight-ahead rock and pop with surprisingly strong results.

Green Day has never made a record so slick and musically mature.

Green Day's melodies are as delicious as ever, and the band continues to integrate acoustic guitar into its sound without getting all granola on us. But as a songwriter, Armstrong's neither here nor there, unable to fully abandon his goofball roots but not stretching far enough to score the breakaway great album he's always seemed capable of writing.

By design, the band doesn't rock as hard as it used to. Doesn't punk as hard as it used to, either. [12/2000, p.215]

Green Day remain the ultimate big-shorts party band. [Nov. 2000, p.116]

The once-giddy melodies now settle for midtempo jangle or novelty...

Hugely likeable, terribly noisy and cute, as well as being jammed with proper pop songs... [Nov. 2000, p.102]

Green Day have created a great punk-meets-rock album.

You're going to have to dig through a barrage of radio-ready songs to find the excitement of previous albums.

The Day's trademark bubblegum punk rock guitars have all been turned down in favour of a less electric, more organic sound. Where once they rocked out, now they polka on the awful Levellers-like 'Fashion Victim' - a song about Gianni Versace. Please.... 'Warning' is the sound of a band losing its way.