39/Smooth
| 39/Smooth | ||||
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| Studio album by Green Day | ||||
| Released | April 13, 1990 | |||
| Recorded | December 29, 1989 –January 2, 1990 | |||
| Studio | Art of Ears Studios, San Francisco, California | |||
| Genre | Punk rock | |||
| Length | 31:13 | |||
| Label | Lookout | |||
| Producer |
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| Green Day chronology | ||||
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39/Smooth is the debut studio album by the American punk rock band Green Day. It was released on April 13, 1990 through Lookout Records on vinyl (black and green) and cassette. It is the band's only studio album to feature John Kiffmeyer on drums.[1]
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 album released by Flipside Records in 1990) on the compilation album 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours in 1991.
Release
39/Smooth 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. Following a move from Laytonville to Berkeley in 1992, a change was made to the address listed on the jacket.[2]
The album was only modestly successful when initially released, selling just short of 3,000 copies for Lookout Records in its first year.[3] While an insignificant sales count for a major label, this represented a healthy and profitable tally for the fledgling underground label.[3] In the spring of 1994, following the release of Dookie, Green Day's first major label offering, Lookout's sales of the title reached the 55,000 mark.[4]
Since the CD version is now out of print, 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.[5] It was re-released on CD on January 9, 2007 by Reprise Records, the label Green Day has been signed to since leaving Lookout!.[6] 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.[7]
No official singles were released from the album, but "Going to Pasalacqua" was released in a Green Day singles box set entitled Green Day: Ultimate Collectors.
Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [8] |
| Robert Christgau |  [9] |
| Pitchfork Media | (6.2/10)[10] |
| Blender | [11] |
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."[8] 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."[10]
Track listing
All songs written and composed by Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and John Kiffmeyer, except when noted.
| 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 |
| 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 |
|
Total length:
|
31:20 | |
Personnel
Green Day
- Billie Joe Armstrong – lead vocals, guitar
- Mike Dirnt – bass, backing vocals
- John Kiffmeyer – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Production
- Andy Ernst – producer, engineer
- Green Day – producers
- John Golden – mastering
- Susie Grant – front cover photo
- Jesse Michaels – artwork
- Pat Hynes – artwork, graphic design, layout design
- Chris Appelgren; Aaron Cometbus; Rich Gargano; David Hayes – artwork
- Murray Bowles; Arica Pelino – photography
References
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- ↑ http://www.greenday.com/album
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Larry Livermore, "Life with Larry," Punk Planet, whole no. 13 (June-July 1996), pg. 19.
- ↑ Larry Livermore, "Life with Larry," Maximum Rocknroll, whole no. 133 (June 1994), pg. 29.
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- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
