Warning

Continuing in a similar vein to Nimrod, Green Day’s sixth studio album, Warning, is notable for its departure from punk rock, and incorporation of acoustic, folk and pop elements.

In comparison to the band’s earlier work, the lyricism of Warning saw frontman Billie Joe Armstrong experimenting with more optimistic and uplifting everyday topics. Additionally, the album features more explicitly political themes, as highlighted in “Minority” and “Warning”. Explaining this to Rolling Stone, Armstrong said:

When you start getting into your politics it’s like you have to be vulnerable and you have to be sort of sensitive. Because if it’s always like straight aggression all the time, there becomes no empathy for the stance that you’re taking. You’re not telling people to think, you’re telling them what to think.

Although it represented a slump in the band’s career upon its release, Warning received generally positive reviews from critics who praised its songwriting and maturity. In his AllMusic review, editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine commented that:

Warning may not be an innovative record per se, but it’s tremendously satisfying; it finds the band at a peak of songcraft and performance, doing it all without a trace of self-consciousness. It’s the first great pure pop album of the new millennium.