Warning: by Green Day

Warning, Green Day's sixth studio album, came out on Reprise on October 3, 2000, and it's the sound of three punks deciding they'd rather strum than sneer for a while. Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool produced it themselves, the first time since Kerplunk that Rob Cavallo wasn't behind the desk, though he still hovered nearby with an executive producer credit.

What they made was a record that picks up where Nimrod's detours left off and keeps walking: acoustic guitars out front, folk and pop melodies where the buzzsaw used to be, and Armstrong writing lyrics that, for once, sound more hopeful than fed up. The title track bounces along with a busker's easy swing, "Minority" is a stomping, shout-along anthem, and "Waiting" wears its sunny hooks without apology.

Not everybody bought the change of clothes. Critics mostly liked it and singled out Armstrong's songwriting, but the album stalled at number four in the US and became the band's first major-label release to miss multi-platinum, a slump that may owe something to the whole thing turning up on Napster three weeks early. It went gold anyway, and it still sounds like a band brave enough to put the distortion pedals away and see what was left.

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