Warning

Green Day

2/5 Stars

Even punks have to grow up sometime.

This is definitely apparent on “Warning,” Green Day’s highly-anticipated follow-up to 1997’s “Nimrod.”

Gone are the speedy pop-punk gems such as “She” and “Welcome to Paradise.” Even the alt-punk style Green Day helped pioneer with the tracks “When I Come Around” and “Brain Stew” has gone the way of the buffalo.

Instead, Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool have decided to slow the tempo, turn off the distortion and stop writing about masturbation.

No longer lazy pop-punk slackers, Billie Joe and crew have families and children – a far cry from the Green Day who named their multi-platinum album “Dookie,” though the 1994 record was anything but shit.

Perhaps “Dookie” would have been a more appropriate title for this release.

For any band to continue to make relevant, successful music, they must grow musically as they get older. Green Day cannot remake “Basketcase” on every album.

And 1997’s “Nimrod” showed promise. Tracks such as “Walking Alone,” “King for a Day” and the crossover smash “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” proved Green Day could move past catchy chick songs to thoughtful, harmonica-laced songs and bittersweet ballads.

However, the band fails to inspire or excite on “Warning,” and Billie Joe, the band and the songs sound tired.

Whether Green Day is tired of being a band, tired of being labeled sellouts or just tired in general, their music has suffered.

“Church On Sunday” is a stunning example of this, though nearly any track on the album would suffice. Without distortion, the song’s standard pop punk chord progressions are laid bare.

Billie Joe screams, “Let’s go!” in a song about trying to make a marriage work. It just seems out of place, a kind of punk rock clich‚.

Green Day’s decision to make a distortion-free album gave them the chance to show how they had developed as songwriters and moved past their early punk roots. Though Billie Joe’s lyrics have matured in most cases, the music has not.

The band’s attempts to grow musically, like the “Godfather”-soundtrack-meets-“Fiddler on the Roof”-inspired “Misery,” are painful.

Not everything on the album hurts, however. The bouncy, first single, “Minority,” and the catchy “Castaway” nearly possess more energy than the rest of the record combined.

Those two tracks, however, are not enough to redeem this album. On “Warning,” Green Day fails to make music as inspiring and relevant as “Basketcase” and “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).”

Perhaps a more complete record title would have been, “Warning: Not that Good.”

– Jon Dahlager

Bridging the Gap

Black Eyed Peas

4/5 Stars

Last year’s Veishea Center Stage headliners Black Eyed Peas are not your run-of-the-mill gangsta rap.

Instead of focusing on how they’re going to “bust a cap” in anyone who doesn’t like them, the BEP actually focus on having fun and grooving to the tunes.

The alternative hip-hoppers are back with their sophomore album, “Bridging the Gap.”

Though they like to have a good time, it doesn’t mean they don’t vent. In the song “Bringing it Back,” the BEP discuss their contempt for much of the rap industry. “Creatively, hip-hop is being destroyed/ A lot of rappers really need to be unemployed because the topics, have really got me annoyed,” the song says. It’s an obvious referral to subjects of gang banging and abuse towards women.

What makes this group interesting is that they can harmonize, and, in addition to a DJ, they use live musicians. And the BEP are certainly not afraid to experiment musically.

The song “Tell Your Mama Come” has an undeniable Latin influence. While some songs seem to have conflicting beats and rhythms, other songs like “BEP Empire” and “Release” have beats that you could nod your head to just as hard as more aggressive rap artists.

There are, however, a few disappointments. Some of the songs recycle lyrics from BEP’s first album, “Behind the Front,” but these are few and far between.

BEP seems to be following in the footsteps of other rap groups in that several guest artists appear on “Bridging the Gap.” Wyclef Jean and De la Soul are two examples, but having so many guest artists on an album seems to detract from the feature artist.

“Bridging the Gap” is a great follow-up album, worthy of recognition, and it breathes life into the sometimes monotonous world of mainstream hip-hop.

– Joel Federer