39/Smooth

39/Smooth
Studio album by Green Day
Released April 13, 1990 (1990-04-13)
Recorded December 29, 1989 (1989-12-29) –January 2, 1990 (1990-01-02)
Studio Art of Ears Studios, San Francisco, California
Genre Punk rock
Length 31:13
Label Lookout
Producer
Green Day chronology
Sweet Children
(1990)		 39/Smooth
(1990)		 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours
(1991)

39/Smooth is the debut studio album by the American punk rock band Green Day, released on April 13, 1990 by Lookout Records on vinyl (black and green) and cassette. It is the band's only studio album to feature original drummer John Kiffmeyer. [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 its loyalty to Lookout! Records (however, the band would later leave Lookout! and move to a major label, Reprise Records). Although it is currently out of print, 39/Smooth was later rereleased, 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
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]
Robert Christgau[9]
Pitchfork Media(6.2/10)[10]
Blender[11]

AllMusic rated the album 3 out of 5, commenting that 39/Smooth 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 tracks written by Green Day (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

Production

References

  1. ↑ http://www.greenday.com/album
  2. ↑ "Pressing info". GreenDayDiscography.com. Retrieved 29 December 2011.
  3. 1 2 Larry Livermore, "Life with Larry," Punk Planet, whole no. 13 (June-July 1996), pg. 19.
  4. ↑ Larry Livermore, "Life with Larry," Maximum Rocknroll, whole no. 133 (June 1994), pg. 29.
  5. ↑ "Lookout! downsizes, scales back plans for the future". Punknews.org. Archived from the original on 26 May 2011. Retrieved 29 April 2011.
  6. ↑ "1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours Music: Green Day". Amazon.com. Retrieved 29 April 2011.
  7. ↑ "Green Day Reissuing 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours and Kerplunk". Retrieved 29 April 2011.
  8. 1 2 "1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved 29 April 2011.
  9. ↑ "Green Day Review". Robert Christgau. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 29 April 2011.
  10. 1 2 "1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours Review". Pitchfork Media. Archived from the original on March 3, 2009. Retrieved 29 April 2011.
  11. ↑ "1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours Review". Blender.

External links

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