Wiki
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Release Date
9 October 1995
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Length
14 tracks
Insomniac is the fourth studio album from the punk rock band Green Day. It was released on October 10, 1995, through the Reprise Records label. Though it reached number two in the United States and went double Platinum (According to the RIAA) by 1996, Insomniac did not have the sales endurance of its predecessor, Dookie, largely due to its slightly darker lyrical tone and heavier, more abrasive sound. The album is the band's third-best selling album behind Dookie and American Idiot with over 7 million copies sold worldwide.
n 1995, a new single for the Angus soundtrack was released, titled "J.A.R.". The single went straight to number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song was followed by Insomniac, which was released in the fall of 1995. Insomniac opened to a warm critical reception, earning four out of five stars from Rolling Stone, which said "In punk, the good stuff actually unfolds and gains meaning as you listen without sacrificing any of its electric, haywire immediacy. And Green Day are as good as this stuff gets."
Before the name 'Insomniac', the band considered the naming the album Tight Wad Hill (After the thirteenth track of the album) After visiting collage artist Winston Smith for the album cover, Billie Joe Armstrong asked him how he managed to make such intricate pieces in such short times. Smith answered, "It's easy for me. I am an insomniac."
The collage on the album cover was created by Winston Smith and is called God Told Me to Skin You Alive, a reference to the Dead Kennedys song "I Kill Children". Interestingly enough, the cover art contains an image (the dentist) that was originally used in a collage featured in the inside cover art of Dead Kennedys' album Plastic Surgery Disasters. Smith knew Tré Cool from Green Day's time at Lookout! Records and told Tré that if he ever needed album artwork that he should call him. The cover art features several hidden images: a naked woman, 3 fairies, and several other ghostly faces in the flames. There are also three skulls on the entire album cover and back; one for each member of Green Day. One of the skulls requires you to view the piece at an angle. The hidden skull is taken from Hans Holbein's 1533 painting 'The Ambassadors'. Green Day's version, however, is slightly different from the original, with the woman holding Billie Joe's sky blue Fernandes imitation Stratocaster rather than an acoustic guitar.
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