Nimrod (album)
Nimrod (stylized as nimrod.) is the fifth studio album by the American rock band Green Day, released on October 14, 1997, by Reprise Records. The band began work on the album in the wake of the cancellation of a European tour after the release of their previous album, Insomniac. Recorded at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles, the album was written with the intent of creating a set of standalone songs as opposed to a cohesive album. Retrospectively, Nimrod is noted for its musical diversity and experimentation, containing elements of folk, hardcore, surf rock, and ska. Lyrical themes discussed include maturity, personal reflection, and fatherhood.
Nimrod
The album peaked at number ten on the Billboard U.S. charts and was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The record was also certified triple platinum in Australia and double platinum in Canada. Upon release, Nimrod received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the singer Billie Joe Armstrong's songwriting. The album yielded the acoustic single "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", which appeared in numerous popular culture events, including the penultimate episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. To promote the album, Green Day embarked on an extensive touring schedule. The album was also reissued on vinyl on June 16, 2009, as well as for anniversary and deluxe edition releases in 2012, 2017, and 2023. The songs "Nice Guys Finish Last", "Hitchin' a Ride", and "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" are featured in the video game Green Day: Rock Band.
Background[edit]
In 1995, Green Day released Insomniac, which did not perform as well commercially as the band's breakthrough major-label debut Dookie.[4] Speaking of Insomniac, the singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong noted, "It did a lot better than I thought it was going to do...From the sound of it, we knew it wasn't going to sell as much as Dookie."[5] The group embarked on an extensive world tour to promote Insomniac in early 1996, which saw the band performing in sports arenas that contrasted with the small clubs the group was accustomed to playing. The members became increasingly uncomfortable with the level of stardom they had attained; Armstrong recalled, "We were becoming the things we hated, playing those big arenas. It was beginning to be not fun anymore."[4]
Green Day also became homesick because touring forced the members to leave behind their families. The band eventually decided to cancel the late 1996 European leg of the Insomniac tour to take time off to spend at home.[6][7] During this time, the band continued to write, and eventually completed over three dozen new songs by the beginning of 1997.[8] Although the group's last effort with the producer Rob Cavallo was considered a disappointment, the band did not contemplate choosing anyone else to work with on Nimrod, because the members viewed Cavallo as a "mentor".[8]
Composition[edit]
Music[edit]
Nimrod is more musically diverse than previous Green Day albums. Armstrong noted that with the album, Green Day went down "different avenues," adding: "Each song has its own character and identity so we wanted to be able to bring that out as much as possible."[20] "Nice Guys Finish Last" has been considered a song that "eases the transition" from Insomniac to Nimrod.[21] Sandy Masuo of the Los Angeles Times likened "Worry Rock" to the music of Elvis Costello.[22] "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" has been referred to as a "pop-punk campfire singalong ballad".[19] After opening with Haden's violin solo, "Hitchin' a Ride" evolves into a bass-driven rock and roll song with a "Stray Cats vibe".[13][15] Cool referred to "Take Back" (considered upfront hardcore punk, both musically and vocally) and "Platypus (I Hate You)" as "some of the most punk songs we've ever done".[18][23][24] "Last Ride In" is a surf rock-influenced instrumental, and "King for a Day" is a ska punk song featuring a horn section.[18] Armstrong compared the song to the Oi! genre, and noted, "It would be funny for a bunch of macho fraternity guys to be singing along and, little do they know, the song's about being in drag."[5] The "chiming" guitar riffs of "Redundant" have been compared to those of the Byrds.[25] Overall, Nimrod is considered a punk rock,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32] pop-punk,[33][34][35] and alternative rock[36] album.
Lyrics[edit]
Lyrically, Nimrod touches upon more reflective themes not present on earlier Green Day albums. Much of the album illustrates Armstrong's sentiments on growing up and his role as a husband and father.[5] "The Grouch" centers on Armstrong's fears of "wasting away, getting fat, becoming impotent, and losing his ideals."[20] On "Walking Alone", he reflects on old friends from his childhood, and notes that he is "too drunk to figure out they're fading away."[20] Armstrong discusses the struggle to stay sober on "Hitchin' a Ride".[5] "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" was inspired by Armstrong's failed relationship with a woman that ended when she joined the Peace Corps in 1993.[37] The same woman is also the subject of "She" from Dookie, "Whatsername" from American Idiot (2004) and "Amanda" from ¡Tré!.[37][38]
However, other songs contain subject matter and themes more typical of Green Day's previous work. Armstrong wrote "Nice Guys Finish Last" about the band's interactions with the band's lawyers and managers and how "everybody thinks they know what's best for you."[39] "Jinx" contains self-deprecating lyrics characteristic of many of the band's songs, while "Prosthetic Head" has been referred to as a "typical ticked-off kiss-off".[20][40] "King for a Day" tells the story of a cross-dresser.[20] "Uptight" contains repeated mentions of suicide; Armstrong explained, "I think the word 'suicide' just sounded really good. And the line, 'I'm a son of a gun'. It made sense, but I can't really explain why it made sense. It just sort of does."[5]
Album title and artwork[edit]
The album's title, Nimrod, is the name of a character from the Bible that was a hunter. In American English, it became a term for a stupid or dimwitted person as the usage is often said to have been popularized by the Looney Tunes cartoon character Bugs Bunny sarcastically referring to the hunter Elmer Fudd as "nimrod".[41][42] After three art directors were rejected by the band and pressing was behind schedule, Green Day asked the help of Chris Bilheimer, a friend of Armstrong who had done covers for another group signed by Warner Bros. Records, R.E.M. Having just the album title to work on, Bilheimer had some ideas, with the one that went through being inspired by a photograph Bilheimer saw, where a politician's poster had his face removed. He felt the image was "striking" and seemed to fit the band by featuring "a typical middle-age male, corporate politician American kind of guy, and someone had completely taken his identity away through vandalism." Following that line of thought, Bilheimer took an encyclopedia picture of men in suits and ties and put colored circles reading "nimrod." on their faces, "using that to take away the people's identity". The back cover had the same being done to a yearbook Bilheimer found in a Los Angeles bookstore, "from the era of the Leave It to Beaver 1950's idyllic America", with the label "break[ing] down that image of people’s perceptions of a happy polite idyllic society." The booklet features the lyrics presented as if they were a secret document that had been redacted with black ink, "so they seemed like they were part of something else".[43]
Two versions of the cover were made: one version with the circles yellow and one with the circles orange (used for the Australian edition).
The portraits covered on the album cover are Frederick Banting and Charles Best, two American-Canadian medical scientists most well known for co-discovering insulin.
Works cited