RANKED: Every Green Day Album Ever

Erin Strom
Jun 4
6 min read

Green Day and UK festivals have a lot in common - the most important of which, a shared taste for throwing mud. That being said, after 37 years on the scene it was about time Green Day headlined the UK’s leading rock and metal festival, after 14 albums and, soon, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame under their belt. 2025 will be Green Day’s first EVER appearance at Download Festival, and the band and their drunk bunny have skipped the queue straight to the top of the bill. They’ve had an illustrious career as truly respected rockers, fashion pioneers (we expect Primark to be out of black shirts, red ties, and black eyeliner by the first week of June) and naked protesters - Green Day have truly done it all.

They managed to revive punk in the 90s in a landscape of MTV and grunge, constantly outdoing themselves and creating pop-culture era after era along the way. It’s sort of not fair to call any Green Day album bad - so, with that in mind, here’s a deep dive of Green Day records, slowly climbing up to our favourites.

12, 13 and 14) !UNO!, !DOS!, !TRE!

These triplets went down like a lead balloon with Green Day fans. The band has since claimed that this succession of albums were directionless and all-over-the-place - but honestly, they’re a lot of fun! “Stray Heart” from !DOS! and “Nuclear Family” from !UNO! are particular standouts - but it’s true that they don’t fit the brand Green Day had, up until this point, so meticulously crafted. Possibly better suited for side projects, the trio just didn’t have the grit fans had come to expect from their favourite musical disrupters.

11) Father Of All...

How do you write a punk album in the middle of COVID? Nobody wants to hear you bragging about your super-rockstar life, and everyone’s sick of hearing how much life sucks. There might have been no winning with FOAMF - and perhaps for me it’s tinged with those time-topical memories. There are plenty of hits here, plenty of misses, but it’s respectable that swings were taken at all in an era so full of uncertainty - an era where Green Day were sorely needed for their political commentary. We all tried out new things in 2020 - and here, Billie Joe tried his hand at falsetto vocals in this album’s titular track.

10) 39/Smooth

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, Green Day catapulted straight out the gate with a banger here. 39/Smooth was a playground for three 17 year olds to show their stuff, yet sustains as standard curriculum for any young punk. It’s a great album with lots of energy and tracks that endure on the setlist - “Going to Pasalacqua” is still celebrated as one of their best to this day - yet 39/Smooth can serve as an aspirational model for any backyard DIY punk band wanting to sink their teeth into hellraising.

9) Kerplunk

The early stages of “Dookie” can be heard throughout this record - sharp-eared fans might notice familiar riffs between “2000 Light Years Away” and “Having a Blast” - but this album also solidified Green Day’s sound. Tre Cool officially joined the lineup with this album, cementing a formidable partnership that would endure for over thirty years. Kerplunk is also where we first hear “Welcome to Paradise” in a crustier and rawer form, before being refined (well, refined in punk standards) on Dookie. Whilst somewhat overshadowed by its older sibling, it does still stand as its own album - it sold 10,000 copies upon release, impressive at the time for an independent release.

8) Warning

A more muted-sounding but still abrasively-lyric-ed offering, Warning is the band’s swinging, jaunty folk-punk record to celebrate the turn of the millennium. It was an era characterised by grainy MTV music videos (who can forget the uncanny valley parade float in “Minority”?) and Billie Joe’s brand new blonde trim, where the band introduced a swarm of punk-rockers to the sweet sounds of the harmonica. “Castaway” is a real favourite, proving Green Day’s ability to write fun earworms, but “Minority” is the true star, an anthemic track that still finds home on the setlist to this day.

7) Saviors

Green Day’s newest offering has some real bangers worthy of their arena-rock status, which they were more than happy to show off last summer (and hopefully at Download Fest!).

It also features the band’s first undeniably bisexual track - in “Bobby Sox” Billie Joe asks “Do you wanna be my girlfriend/boyfriend?” to nobody in particular. It’s not the first time Billie Joe’s bisexuality is documented through the band’s work - it’s been a topic as far back as “Coming Clean” - but it’s wonderful to see this displayed in a romantic track so full of heart, rather than angst. At the time of writing there are more songs to be released from Saviors - and it’s definitely an album we want to hear more of.

6) Revolution Radio

Somehow, some rockers were surprised when the band most famed for their anti-Bush disstrack returned in 2016 with a full album slating Trump. “Revolution Radio” sees Green Day return explicitly to politics with a more mature version of the band, but the same red-hot flame as ever, with a new face on their dartboard. “Bang Bang” is an honestly lyrically haunting track from inside the mind of a shooter, with “Say Goodbye” doubling down on this social fear of rising violence on the streets. There are some really fun moments - “Bouncing off the Walls” and “Youngblood” are happy-go-lucky rock tracks - as well as the really beautiful outro of “Ordinary World”.

5) 21st Century Breakdown

After the smash-hit of American Idiot, all eyes were on Green Day to avoid sophomore-slump-syndrome. In response, they delivered a second rock opera, carrying many notes of American Idiot, but new commentaries of hard-done-by America. This album straddled punk sentiment and pop melodies, particularly with “!Viva la Gloria!” and “Last of the American Girls”, but classic Green Day shines through on tracks like “Horseshoes and Handgrenades”. At the time of recording, the American Idiot musical was in-production, and once its director got wind of “Know Your Enemy” and “21 Guns” he clamoured for them to be featured in the musical, already sniffing their success pre-release.

4) Insomniac

It takes an alchemist to pull off punk that is sloppy and raw, yet so sharp and pointed - “Insomniac” is a direct response to the boys who cried sellout. It’s so much more than just “Brain Stew” - though this track is excellent to characterise this era - songs like “86” clap back to anyone who can’t see Green Day as more than commercial chart-toppers. Anger and energy was fuelled into this with the poise of a band that knows exactly what it’s doing - there are some cuts on here that reek of the garages and dingy clubs the band started off playing in. It’s truly a “Walking Contradiction” that this album is so excellent, yet so underrated.

3) Nimrod

Affectionately referred to in my house as “No-Skips Nimrod”, this album offers listeners something new with each track. Fans of “Warning” will be thrilled to hear that the harmonica makes a return on “Walking Alone”, and there’s some proper full-throttle punk in “Platypus (I Hate You)”. There are some jaunty, and still punchy riffs that carry “Hitchin’ a Ride”, juxtaposing the more melodic leanings of “Redundant” and “Haushinka”. The two most standout tracks are even complete polar opposites, it’s hard to believe that the wild and unrestrained “King for a Day” is on the same album as “Good Riddance”. Somehow, this album completely works, and is a masterclass in shaking up your wheelhouse.

2) Dookie

Although we’re sure local venues have never forgiven the band for the impact that “Basket Case” would have, “Dookie” has truly proven itself as one of the most enduring albums of the past 30 years. It set the bar and defined a subculture, bringing punk rock back after the Cobain-dominated airwaves of the early 90s. Green Day defined themselves here with memorable riffs - both guitar-based and also the iconic drum beats of “Longview” - but also their storytelling, decorated with surprising poignance and stupid potty humour in equal measures. It’s a true coming-of-age album, touching upon subjects of self-worth, first loves, and... well, all of “Longview”. It’s nicely wrapped up by Tre Cool’s “All by Myself”, a ditty still circulating their setlist today.

1) American Idiot

Overrated..... or just a damn good album? Sometimes albums are classics for good reason, and American Idiot is the poster boy. It’s another no-skips album with cohesive theme and storytelling, without falling into the trap of sounding one-note. From opening with its killer titular track to full-on rock sagas like “Homecoming” and “Jesus of Suburbia” (for which the music video had irreversible impacts on trans men everywhere) American Idiot spins you the story of America as Green Day see it - downtrodden and hard-done-by. This album is an epic from start to finish and does not relent - even the slower and more thoughtful tracks on this album pack a punch. It’s a wonder the band didn’t give up on this album - after the master tapes to “Cigarettes and Valentines” were stolen, morale was understandably low. Instead, Green Day delivered arguably the most genre-defining album of 2000s pop punk. It’s personal and it’s universal, it’s heartfelt and it’s carefree, it’s a rallying cry to everyone, not just punks, to wake up and smell revolution. And it rocks hard.