Warning

10/03/2000 5:34 PM, Yahoo! Music
Neal Weiss

The preeminent proto-punk band of the last decade has finally shed its pubescent skin. Warning, Green Day's sixth album, is crafty pop-rock, with enough acoustic guitars, keyboards, harmonicas, and strings to make a pink-haired punk rock kid puke his Taco Bell while screaming "sell-out."

The acoustic guitars are the real culprits here, not a la the group's fluke, "Kumbayah"-ish pop hit, "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)," but via riffy textures that deliver classic tones nearly unfathomable back when GD was naming albums after poop. The album-opening title track recalls late-'60s Kinks, while the romp-ish single, "Minority," feels, perhaps unbelievably, like the Pogues. In between is the quirky "Misery," a globe-trotting jaunt that surprises at every turn with accordions, Mariachi horns, and an all-around Eastern European feel.

Green Day does still rock. But Warning is not the stuff that inspired a thousand Blink 182s. And when it tries, it fails, for they are so beyond that moment. Still, Warning impresses plenty. Some might wish Green Day never decided to grow up like this, but others might consider it a starting point to take the band seriously.