Green Day

Warning (Reprise)

Questions on punk-pop standbys Green Day's sixth full-length: Is it Green Day lite? Is it the sellout of all sellouts? What's the deal with the easy-listening saxophone solo?

Yeah, you heard me: saxophone solo. Frontman Billie Joe and the boys will certainly catch flak from the underground scene for this stripped-down follow-up to 1997's Nimrod. While it's not an album full of heartfelt "Good Riddance"-style ballads, it's still a punk purist's nightmare: mid-tempo strum-alongs with the trademark Green Day melodies but a distortion level of nil. First single "Minority" is probably the punkest song on the disc -and that's not saying much.

Why the drastic change? Call it an early midlife crisis. As Lookout Records founder Lawrence Livermore so graciously explains in the promotional materials, Green Day aren't just snot-nosed kids anymore. Billie Joe has a wife and two boys, for whom he says he wants to write songs about hope. Well, that's fine, but how does the music sound? With the rough edges rubbed out in production, what's left are a few standout pop tracks. "Church on Sunday" and "Castaway" won't bug your parents and they don't break any new ground on a broad musical scope, but they're still catchy as hell. And they're a step forward for the band. Rather than the tired rallying cry of sellout, it's probably more reasonable-and more accurate-to assume that after five albums of the same, the time just felt right for a change. B+