Green Day fully broke into the mainstream with albums like Dookie and American Idiot, but before that, they were dabbling in skate punk and emulating The Buzzcocks on their debut studio album 39/Smooth. Their debut dropped in April 1990. The year before, the trio—which, at the time, included drummer John Kiffmeyer—released their debut EP, 1,000 Hours, which introduced them to the world.
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At the time of its release, 39/Smooth garnered praise from Green Day’s contemporaries in the punk scene. It was compared to albums by the bands Crimpshine and The Lookouts, as well as The Ramones. It had a generally positive reception from critics as well, although some remained negative, as is expected of music critics.
Retrospectively, it holds a nostalgic place for a lot of Green Day fans. Many relate to its themes of unrequited love, longing, yearning, and desire, as well as reminiscing about youth. Seeing as Billie Joe Armstrong was still in high school when he wrote this album (he dropped out before its release), it’s difficult to imagine what he was reminiscing about. Was there a sense of romanticization of youth, of bygone times spent with no responsibilities, no commitments but being young? It’s possible that’s why 39/Smooth still resonates with Green Day fans today.
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At the time, Green Day adopted a practice from their musical inspirations, like The Buzzcocks, the Clash, and The Ramones. Specifically, they recorded extremely quickly, putting down vocals and guitar parts in the better part of a day. The rest of the album was finished the following day. And the band’s studio time cost only about $645 in 1989. According to author Ben Myers in his 2006 biography of Green Day, they applied the “same sense of pared-down economy to their own blistering debut” that the punk bands before them had employed.
Myers wrote that Green Day’s previous release, the 1,000 Hours EP, wasn’t technically anything different from what other bands in the scene were doing. It didn’t really have a strict direction. The record was more pop-punk than straight punk, and offered more of a sampler of what Green Day could do rather than a cohesive album. However, the release of 1,000 Hours put Green Day “on the map,” according to Myers. This helped them gain attention for 39/Smooth, which led to a 45-date U.S. tour in 1990.
Overall, 39/Smooth further entrenched Green Day in the Southern California punk scene. But it gave them an edge as well. They stood out with Armstrong’s yearning lyrics steeped in desire and nostalgia, with buzzy and gritty guitars, and tried-and-true pop-punk formulas that they continue to use today.
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