nimrod. by Green Day

nimrod., Green Day's fifth album, came out on Reprise on October 14, 1997, and it's the sound of three punks refusing to make the same record twice. Work started after a European tour behind Insomniac was called off, and they cut it at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles with Rob Cavallo co-producing.

This time Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool weren't chasing a unified album at all; the idea was a pile of songs that could each stand on their own, and that's what they got. There's hardcore thrash, surf twang, ska bounce and folk, all jammed together. "Hitchin' A Ride" slinks and struts before it explodes, "Nice Guys Finish Last" is a snotty sprint, and "Redundant" slows down to take a breath. On the lyric sheet, growing up, looking inward and becoming a father sit next to the usual brattiness.

The one everybody knows is "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", an acoustic ballad that found its way into all sorts of pop culture moments, the next-to-last episode of Seinfeld among them. Critics mostly liked the record and singled out Armstrong's songwriting. It reached number ten on the Billboard charts, went double platinum in the US and Canada and triple platinum in Australia, and has been reissued in 2012, 2017 and 2023.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.