Kerplunk! | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | December 17, 1991[1] | |||
Recorded | May – September 1991 | |||
Studio | Art of Ears, San Francisco, California | |||
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Green Day chronology | ||||
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Kerplunk (stylized as Kerplunk!) is the second studio album by the American rock band Green Day, released on December 17, 1991, by Lookout! Records. Kerplunk was Green Day's last independent release on the Lookout Records label, and was also the first album to feature Tré Cool on drums. Kerplunk officially includes only 12 tracks, but the versions released on CD and cassette also include the four tracks from the Sweet Children EP. One of those tracks is a cover of The Who's " My Generation". Green Day guitarist and singer Billie Joe Armstrong stated in a 2021 Vulture magazine interview that Kerplunk is his favorite album, describing it as "kind of autobiographical". [4]
Kerplunk's sound has been described as punk rock, [5] [6] [7] [8] pop-punk, [9] [10] and indie rock. [11]
Kerplunk was banned from certain stores because of the cover art. [12] The cover features a mostly white picture (with some green added in) of a girl with a gun that has been fired. On the back cover, there is a boy lying on the ground with a gunshot wound on his back.
The album sold 10,000 copies its first day and became Lookout!'s biggest-selling release. [13] After debuting it to their fans in the Berkeley, California, area and receiving much approval from the critical 924 Gilman Street crowd, the band packed up in a cramped, converted Bookmobile and headed east. Green Day developed a fan base on the east coast by way of the determined grassroots efforts of lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong. The opportunity paid off, as album sales reached over 50,000 copies. Along with the successful live shows, major labels took notice of Kerplunk's sales. As a result, many labels approached the band. Green Day realized that they had outgrown their record distribution capacity with Lookout! and eventually signed with Reprise Records. With Reprise, Green Day recorded and released their next album, Dookie (1994).
In August 2005, Green Day pulled the album – as well as all of their other material released through the Lookout! label – due to unpaid royalties. [14] It was reissued on CD by Reprise Records, who Green Day has been with since leaving Lookout!, on January 9, 2007. In Europe, the album was released by Epitaph Europe, and it has remained in print. It was reissued on vinyl on March 24, 2009, by Reprise Records. There were no official singles released from the album, although "2000 Light Years Away" and "Christie Road" were released as mock-up singles in a Green Day singles box set entitled Green Day: Ultimate Collectors. In November 2017, to coincide with the band's second official best-of compilation, Greatest Hits: God's Favorite Band, a music video was released for "2000 Light Years Away". As of November 2013, Kerplunk has sold more than 1,000,000 copies in the United States and more than 4,000,000 copies worldwide.
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [15] |
Alternative Press | [16] |
Christgau's Consumer Guide | [17] |
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [18] |
Pitchfork | 8.5/10 [6] |
(The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide | [19] |
AllMusic regards Kerplunk as the "perfect dry run" for the band's later mainstream appeal, saying it contains "both more variety and more flat-out smashes than previous releases had shown." [15] Pitchfork Media states "All in all, it's a magnitude better than its predecessor and only a hair behind the follow up." [6]
In December 2007, Blender magazine ranked the album number 47 on their "The 100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums Ever" list. [11]
All lyrics are written by Billie Joe Armstrong, except "Dominated Love Slave" by Tré Cool; all music is composed by Green Day, except "2000 Light Years Away" by Green Day, Jesse Michaels, Pete Rypins and Dave "E.C." Henwood
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "2000 Light Years Away" | 2:24 |
2. | "One for the Razorbacks" | 2:30 |
3. | " Welcome to Paradise" | 3:30 |
4. | "Christie Road" | 3:33 |
5. | "Private Ale" | 2:26 |
6. | "Dominated Love Slave" | 1:42 |
7. | "One of My Lies" | 2:19 |
8. | "80" | 3:39 |
9. | "Android" | 3:00 |
10. | "No One Knows" | 3:39 |
11. | "Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?" | 2:44 |
12. | "Words I Might Have Ate" | 2:32 |
Total length: | 33:58 |
All lyrics are written by Billie Joe Armstrong, except where noted; all music is composed by Green Day, except " My Generation" by Pete Townshend
No. | Title | Lyrics | Length |
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13. | "Sweet Children" | 1:41 | |
14. | "Best Thing in Town" | 2:03 | |
15. | "Strangeland" | 2:08 | |
16. | " My Generation" ( The Who cover) | Pete Townshend | 2:19 |
Total length: | 42:10 |
Adapted from the album liner notes. [20]
Green Day
Production
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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United Kingdom ( BPI) [21] | Gold | 100,000^ |
United States ( RIAA) [22] | Platinum | 1,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |