Editing Insomniac (Green Day album) (section)

==Composition==
===Musical style===
{{listen
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|title="Geek Stink Breath"
|description="[[Geek Stink Breath]]" is the lead single from the album.
|filetype=[[Ogg]]}}
{{listen
|filename=Brain Stew Jaded.ogg
|title="Brain Stew/Jaded"
|description="[[Brain Stew/Jaded]]" is the third single from the album.
|filetype=[[Ogg]]}}
David Browne of ''Entertainment Weekly'' described ''Insomniac'' as "14 slices of hearty anarchy, played with a follow-the-bouncing-spitball compactness and vigor."<ref name=EW/> Ian Winwood of ''[[Kerrang!]]'' wrote of the album's "master class in buzzsaw efficiency, the songs are so economical, not to mention harsh, that the removal of even a single chord would cause each composition to collapse in on itself," calling it "the album on which its creators lost their baby teeth."<ref name="Winwood">{{cite web |last1=Winwood |first1=Ian |title=Green Day: The Inside Story of Insomniac |url=https://www.kerrang.com/features/green-day-the-inside-story-of-insomniac/ |website=Kerrang |access-date=October 22, 2019 |date=2018}}</ref> Music journalist Andrew Earles said producer Rob Cavallo "helped the band make huge guitar walls out of riffs and grow away from the shiny-happy locker-room dip-shittery of ''Dookie''."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Earles |first1=Andrew |title=Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981-1996 |date=September 15, 2014 |publisher=Voyageur Press |page=131 }}</ref>

The album features bleaker, more pessimistic lyrics than those of ''Dookie''.<ref name=EW/> However, ''Rolling Stone'' noted that the lyrics exemplify "cold-eyed realism, not trendy nihilism or bleak despair."<ref name=RS/> Armstrong's vocal delivery on the album has been described as an "adenoidal vocal whine."<ref name=RS/>

===Lyrical themes===
The album begins with "Armatage Shanks", which explores disassociation and the lack of identity, with Armstrong feeling "Stranded / Lost inside myself."<ref name=RS/> "When I wrote that song it was right before ''Dookie'' came out, and I was really at odds with myself," Armstrong said of it in an interview with ''[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Marks |first=Craig |date=December 1995 |title=Green Day: Boys to Men |journal=[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]] |volume=11 |issue=9 |page=138 |issn=0886-3032}}</ref> "Brat" takes the perspective of a "snot-nosed slob without a job" waiting for his parents to die in order to receive his inheritance.<ref name=EW/> "Stuck with Me", the second single of the album, talks about the band's negative experiences with their newfound fame after releasing ''Dookie'', as evidenced by the line ”I'm not part of your elite, I'm just alright". "Geek Stink Breath", the first single, discusses methamphetamine use, including side effects such as the formation of facial scabs and an accelerated pulse.<ref name=RS/> "No Pride" talks about a narrator at the bottom of society, who doesn't mind being there, since he has no pride. The angst-ridden "Bab's Uvula Who?" begins with the lyric, "I've got a knack for fucking everything up," backed by a "brutal, unforgiving wall of sound."<ref name=RS/> It is followed by "86", which discusses the rejection Green Day faced from the [[924 Gilman Street]] music club in Berkeley after the band's rise to fame in 1994.<ref name="brief">{{cite news|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/2013/05/03/a-brief-guide-to-green-day/|title=A brief guide to Green Day|work=The Baltimore Sun|publisher=Tribune Publishing|date=May 3, 2013|access-date=February 23, 2016|last=Case|first=Wesley|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305191612/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-05-03/entertainment/bs-ae-american-idiot-sidebar-20130503_1_green-day-geek-stink-breath-gilman-street-punk-scene|archive-date=2016-03-05|url-status=live}}</ref>

"Panic Song" exhibits a pessimistic view of the world, describing it as "a sick machine breeding a mass of shit."<ref name=EW/> It begins with a "pummeling" instrumental introduction that has been compared to [[the Who]], which lasts for roughly the first two minutes of the three-and-a-half minute-long song.<ref name=EW/> It was inspired by Armstrong's [[panic attack]]s caused by his [[anxiety]] issues and Dirnt's panic attacks, which were suffered as a result of being born with an enlarged [[mitral valve]] in his heart.<ref name="myers22">Myers, 2006. p. 22</ref> Cool tore the calluses on his hand while recording the instrumental intro, and slumped against a wall between takes. Cavallo recalled the musician's hands resembled "a bloody mess".<ref name="Winwood" /> "Stuart and The Ave." is about a girl Billie liked but then realized he didn't anymore. Billie wrote this song after Billie’s girlfriend broke up with him before Insomniac’s release. So he proceeded to go home and write a punk anger filled song about it. Stuart and the Ave. is a real location in Berkeley CA, it is an intersection between Stuart Street and Telegraph Avenue. "Brain Stew", the third and biggest single off of ''Insomniac'', talks about insomnia and is quickly followed by "Jaded". "Westbound Sign" is about Billie's wife, Adrienne, moving to California with him. "Tight Wad Hill" talks about how the activities teens once did (like getting high) are not fun anymore. Tight Wad Hill is also a real place at California Memorial Stadium where people would watch games without paying, as said in the line, "Cheapskate on the hill, a thrill seeker making deals". The final track, "Walking Contradiction" was described as an anthem for "anyone who has chafed against the bounds of the demographically correct, computer-coded, image-conscious mid-'90s."<ref name=RS/>