Kerplunk

Kerplunk is an early-1990s milestone and features the definitive lineup with drummer Tre Cool. One listen to this album makes it clear why Green Day, rather than any of their Bay Area peers, were the band that won the major-label lottery; they were simply better than the vast majority of their contemporaries.

This record's version of "Welcome to Paradise," while rougher than the eventual hit single from 1994's "Dookie," is only one of several clearly brilliant pop songs delivered with an approach that's part Buzzcocks, part Go-Go's, mixing sharply drawn neuroses and sweet pop hooks. "Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?" and the downright sweet "2000 Light Years Away," an unabashed love song to the woman who singer Billie Joe Armstrong would soon marry, are just as good.

This edition also adds the four-song "Sweet Children" EP, which includes a brash cover of The Who's "My Generation." On Epitaph.