Green Day: Insomniac (2LP, 25th anniversary) [REPRISE]

Why you'll love it

This 25th anniversary 2LP set adds a bonus LP of eight live tracks from the Insomniac tour stop in Prague on March 26, 1996, with an etched fourth side. The album hit No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and went double platinum, powered by "Brain Stew," "Geek Stink Breath" and "Walking Contradiction."

This edition

• 2LP set
• 25th anniversary edition
• Remastered
• Bonus LP of live tracks from Prague, 1996
• Etched side D
• Printed inner sleeves
• Pressed in the Czech Republic
• Lyrics included

About the album

Following up an album heading for ten million sales is a peculiar sort of pressure. Dookie had Green Day playing hockey arenas, and the punk scene they came from wasn't thrilled about it. Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool answered with something heavier and more abrasive, recorded at Hyde Street in San Francisco with Rob Cavallo and built on high-energy takes. As Dirnt put it, they wanted people to know they weren't a flash in the pan.

"Brain Stew" rides one of the great sludgy riffs of the 90s straight into the sprint of "Jaded," "Geek Stink Breath" snarls, "Stuck with Me" kicks the door in, and "Walking Contradiction" closes on Armstrong's sharpest sarcasm. Armstrong and Tré Cool had both just become fathers, and the restless, sleepless energy of the title runs through every track.

The Prague set catches the band in March 1996 tearing through these songs at full tilt, proof they were built for the stage. Given the title, we did consider staying up all night to listen to it; we made it to about half ten.

Also at Kops: more Green Day on vinyl · browse Punk

Tracklist

Listen

On Reprise, a reissue of the 1995 album.