October 10, 1995. Green Day cuts through the mid-'90s alt-rock noise with a strong follow-up to their 1994 breakthrough Dookie.
Talking about this two-year stretch in the Green Day timeline brings to mind the rock world of the '70s and early '80s, when bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Van Halen would basically churn out an album a year. Green Day dropped Dookie in February of '94. By December of that year, they'd released three singles from the album (with two more to come), toured their punk rock asses off, and were back in the studio working on a follow-up. I miss the times when bands would do that.
Insomniac carries over a lot of the energy of Dookie, but the songs are sharper, more focused. The band hadn't lost their sophomoric sense of humor, but there was a sheen of cynicism cast over it. Having kids call you "sell outs" for the better part of a year will do that. But pound-for-pound, Insomniac packs just as much punch as Dookie did, and the two albums work together as a nice tandem, capturing a band that had been thrust into international rock stardom, stepped up to the challenge, and took a few licks in doing so.
Revisit a few of Insomniac's standout tracks below and you'll get what I'm getting at. You might start to understand why a lot of Green Day heads call the album their favorite, too.
