Which album sound do you like the most?

[Clayish]

Insomniac or American Idiot.

[Cob]

My favorite Green Day tones are Dookie, American Idiot, The Trilogy, and Warning in that order. Dookie has an incredible guitar tone and a fantastic mix. American Idiot as well. Warning's production values let everything really breathe, and The Trilogy has awesome, awesome guitar/bass/drum sounds.

Before you guys wail on Butch Vig too hard, remember that he produced Wasting Light for the Foo Fighters. That was one of the best-produced, best-sounding albums I've ever heard. Mixing it on tape was definitely a brilliant move.

Pitch correction, voice modification, call it whatever you want. Billie Joe's voice on 21CB was not natural, and the album suffered greatly for it.

I call it reverb, digital delay, and double tracking. Auto-Tune/pitch correction etc. has a really, really distinct sound to it, even when it's *hidden*. What you're hearing is compression, the compression of the tracks and harmonies totally remove any breathing room in the vocals.

[Jon Benjamin]

Why does everyone hate the sound of 21st so much, I love it. I like both ends of the spectrum, raw as fuck and super produced. It's so clean and perfect and crisp. Why is it so wrong to have a perfect product? I like the trilogy too, especially the tone, he's used it in AI and 21st and even a little on Warning but it's dominant now and it's amazing.

[Trecool90210]

I'd have to say Insomniac. Pure power comes from behind that crunchy guitar, the droning bass, and the hammering drums. I'd say the further along you go, the less skill they put into albums (excludes AI, but it's still dull compared to Kerplunk-Insomniac). Being a drummer, I love all the songs on Insomniac, but I only like a few songs from the trilogy that have an okay drum track. I'm mad they took out a lot of distortion from the trilogy, because many songs had the potential to be Insomniac like songs, but the clean track made it so dull and hollow. In insomniac there is no void of full sound in the entire album, not to mention you can somehow actually hear Mike amidst all the guitar, which is a huge plus. I guess to get to the point I like songs where it's not simple to play (No Pride, Private Ale, Burnout...) vs songs that go in one continuous motion of simple beats and rhythms (Last Night on Earth, Drama Queen, Restless Heart Syndrome...), which is why Insomniac screams to me. It's pure, raw, and full of power.

[Slave To The Network]

I like American Idiot's sound the best. It's so huge and bold. It sounds very alive to me. After AI I think the trilogy is the next best. There is good variety among the sounds of the different songs and it brings back some of that open feeling from AI.

[K!ngForADay]

Overall, love the Nimrod sound because it's so varied. You go from the soft acoustic picking of Good Riddance to the ear bashing, distortion charged Platypus.

Don't like the 39/Smooth sound. Don't mind Billie's voice or Mike's bass but dislike the guitar and drums. Kerplunk was better, but still dislike the guitar sound.

Like the Dookie sound except it lacks a bit of variation.

Insomniac was great, fab guitar and bass sound but I agree that at times it is difficult to hear Billie.

Like Warning most of the time, but could have been better.

American Idiot is fantastic, the chunky guitar sound and Billie's superb vocals make the album. Mike's bass isn't quite as strong as it could have been though.

21st Century Breakdown, I agree with others. Great songs but overproduced. Billie's voice is too concentrated and the instruments all could have been more powerful.

Don't like the trilogy sound at all. There's very little variation, aside from Nightlife and a few others. Guitar sounds the same on almost every song and Billie's vocals are even worse than on 21CB, especially on Amanda. If some of these songs had more gain on the guitars and more natural sounding vocals they would be great.

Nimrod takes the cake with American Idiot and Insomniac close behind.

[Clean Cut Asshole]

The sounds of the first 4 albums are great, those are my favorites. But out of those, I'd say either 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours or Insomniac, I can't easily decide between those, but I think I'll go with 1,039. But in terms of actual favorite album, it's reverse, Insomniac then 1,039. Nimrod, Warning and American Idiot are good too, but everything after that is just way too overproduced for my taste. And don't get me wrong, Butch Vig is a good producer, I love Wasting Light, I just don't think he did that great on 21CB.

[Trecool90210]

Overall, love the Nimrod sound because it's so varied. You go from the soft acoustic picking of Good Riddance to the ear bashing, distortion charged Platypus.

Don't like the 39/Smooth sound. Don't mind Billie's voice or Mike's bass but dislike the guitar and drums. Kerplunk was better, but still dislike the guitar sound.

Like the Dookie sound except it lacks a bit of variation.

Insomniac was great, fab guitar and bass sound but I agree that at times it is difficult to hear Billie.

Like Warning most of the time, but could have been better.

American Idiot is fantastic, the chunky guitar sound and Billie's superb vocals make the album. Mike's bass isn't quite as strong as it could have been though.

21st Century Breakdown, I agree with others. Great songs but overproduced. Billie's voice is too concentrated and the instruments all could have been more powerful.

Don't like the trilogy sound at all. There's very little variation, aside from Nightlife and a few others. Guitar sounds the same on almost every song and Billie's vocals are even worse than on 21CB, especially on Amanda. If some of these songs had more gain on the guitars and more natural sounding vocals they would be great.

Nimrod takes the cake with American Idiot and Insomniac close behind.

This.

[Soroush]

American Idiot was all I needed from the music Industry. Modern, heavy, creative and dark enough. I hope the next album will sound as serious as AI and as fun as Dos.