| 39/Smooth | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Green Day | ||||
| Released | April 13, 1990 | |||
| Recorded | December 29, 1989 – January 2, 1990 at the Art of Ears Studio, San Francisco, California | |||
| Genre | Punk rock | |||
| Length | 31:13 | |||
| Label | Lookout!, Reprise, Epitaph Europe | |||
| Producer | Andy Ernst and Green Day | |||
| Green Day chronology | ||||
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39/Smooth is the debut full-length studio album by the American punk rock band Green Day. It was released on April 13, 1990 through Lookout! Records on vinyl (black, green, and clear) and cassette.[1]
The album includes 10 tracks. Jesse Michaels of Operation Ivy contributed the artwork on the album. The inner sleeve shows handwritten lyrics by Billie Joe Armstrong and letters by drummer John Kiffmeyer and Lookout! owner Larry Livermore to I.R.S. Records, rejecting an offer to sign to the label and declaring their loyalty to Lookout! Records (however, the band would later leave Lookout! and move to a major label, Reprise Records).
39/Smooth was later featured in its entirety, along with the group's two previous extended plays Slappy, 1,000 Hours and the song "I Want to Be Alone" (from The Big One, a compilation from Flipside Records that featured bands from the East Bay and Los Angeles) on the compilation album 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours in 1991.
Contents |
The album was released in 1990 and the first few releases were black vinyl. It was later released in green vinyl and only around 800 exist on green. The old pressings of the LP have the old Lookout 'Laytonville' address on the back. Since the moving from Lookout records to Berkeley in 1992, the new address was added.[2] The LP's contents were later featured on the compilation album 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, which was released 1991. The compilation was re-released in a remastered form in 2004.[3] It was only released on vinyl and cassette until it was re-released on CD on January 9, 2007 by Reprise Records, the label Green Day has been signed to since leaving Lookout!.[4] Note that in Europe, the album was already re-released by Epitaph Europe, and has remained in print. It was reissued on vinyl on March 24, 2009 by Reprise in a package containing the original 10-song 39/Smooth LP along with reissues of the 1,000 Hours and Slappy EPs.[5]
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [6] |
| Blender | [7] |
| Pitchfork Media | (6.2/10)[8] |
| Robert Christgau | [9] |
| Rolling Stone | [10] |
Allmusic rated the album 3 out of 5, commenting that "1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours isn't a truly great album in the first place. It's not bad, by any means, and quite arguably just about everything on it could be transposed with a slight aural tweak here and there to Kerplunk, Dookie, Insomniac or Nimrod without anyone batting an eye."[11] Pitchfork said that "It's raw stuff, but even at this point Green Day's records were at least halfway decently recorded, unlike most of their peers' tin-can-and-twine set-ups, and songs like 'At the Library' and 'Don't Leave Me' were downright hummable."
1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours saw regional success in California, and has continuously sold since the band has broken through the mainstream.
All songs written and composed by Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and John Kiffmeyer, except when noted.
| Side one | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 1. | "At the Library" | 2:28 | |||||||
| 2. | "Don't Leave Me" | 2:39 | |||||||
| 3. | "I Was There" (lyrics written by Kiffmeyer) | 3:36 | |||||||
| 4. | "Disappearing Boy" | 2:52 | |||||||
| 5. | "Green Day" | 3:29 | |||||||
| Side two | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 6. | "Going to Pasalacqua" | 3:30 | |||||||
| 7. | "16" | 3:24 | |||||||
| 8. | "Road to Acceptance" | 3:35 | |||||||
| 9. | "Rest" | 3:05 | |||||||
| 10. | "The Judge's Daughter" | 2:34 | |||||||
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Total length:
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31:13 | ||||||||