Green Day has re-invented itself yet again, as middle-aged punks trapped pondering their success as rock stars?and I am sure that most people will be upset to finally learn that Green Day has feelings. For some it may be an epiphany, but to anyone who has ever listened to Green Day’s early albums (“1,039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours” and “Kerplunk”) it?s understood that Billie Joe has always been a bit of a sap, despite his sharp cutting lyrics.

The majority of people mistake Green Day for a punk band, when in reality they are a power pop band playing three or four chord ditties about love, drugs, loneliness, disillusionment, and their hatred of idiots.

The standout track on “Warning!” is “Blood, Sex, and Booze” where Billie Joe sings about the lessons learned from a dominatrix named Kill. The song is the only song besides “Minority” that adequately showcases the Green Day that we know.

The other tracks introduce us to a more reflective Green Day and it’s an obvious progression; what do you do when you become the mainstream? Green Day has taken on that dubious task and returned with a group of songs that showcase Billie Joe’s song writing talents.

On the track “Church on Sunday,?? Billie Joe asks, “If I promise to go to church on Sunday, will you go with me on Friday night?” The song is obviously about his wife and his realizations that the only way a marriage can succeed is through compromise.

Billie Joe then rips into poseurs and people who define themselves by the name brand clothes they wear on the track “Fashion Victim.” Billie Joe asks “What?s in the name?” The most haunting track on the album is the melancholy “Macys? Day Parade.” Billie Joe is wrestling with the fact that he is actually happy. “I’m looking for a brand new hope, the one I?ve never known, but now I know, it?s all that I wanted.”

Green Day will never be the Clash, but hell, the Clash are overrated anyway, with the exception of the album “London Calling.” This album is not as good as “Nimrod,” but I?ll take it any day over the crap that?s passing for music nowadays.

Rating: 4 Sinatras (out of 5)