Starting
with the obvious choice, ¡Uno! (released
September 21, 2012) the band proclaimed this to be the generic pop-punk album
of the trilogy, with songs similar to what the band has been known for making
their whole career. The result was, for the most part, a success for Green Day fans and music fans alike.
The
albums first track, Nuclear Family
is your basic Green Day track. It is fast, fun and simple, featuring just the
basic three instruments a rock band needs, guitar, bass and drums. Most, if not
all of the album follows this format, which is a relaxing revelation for those
who were not fans of the experimenting done of recent previous albums.
Other
songs on the album that follow the fast pace of this song include songs like Loss of Control, the somewhat 50’s styled Angel
Blue, Rusty James (named after the
lead character in the book Rumble Fish,
with lyrics also successfully concerning the concepts in the story such as the
nature of gangs back in the 1950’s/60’s). The last of the fast on the album, Let Yourself Go is also the third
single released from the album. It does stand out above the rest of the fast
paced songs on the album. It is definitely catchier than the rest, probably the
most catchy and sing-able song on the album. The lyrics are generic and easy to
remember, it’s mostly the music that the band concentrated on for this track.
The albums second single, Kill the DJ sounds nothing like anything else
on the album (or the following two albums). It mixes the bands known punk sound
with a style of dance music that is still very accessible to the anti-dance
music fan (such as myself). The song’s groove is hard not to get in to and Bille Joe does one of his better vocal performances
on the album.
The tracks Carpe Diem
and Troublemaker are more aggressive
mid-tempo songs. In typical Green Day fashion, they are very catchy and easy to
sing along with. The latter of the two may not have the best lyrics, but it
takes from obvious punk influencers such as Iggy Pop. It is hard not to appreciate the band’s drummer Tre Cool for keeping the song going
with his consistent and very distinctive drum beats, as he’s done so many times
in the bands career, not to mention on every song off of this album.
This album, as well as the other two albums in the trilogy,
follows a pattern that Green Day
hasn’t followed since the mid-90’s, and that is the simple usage of guitar,
drum and bass. They didn’t experiment on any of the songs at all and kept it
the simplest album that the band has released since 1995’s Insomniac. It isn’t quite the Dookie
sounding album that some fans have been longing for since the early 90’s, but
it isn’t the rock opera that American
Idiot and 21st Century
Breakdown were (not to say that they weren’t amazing albums). The band
managed to change their sound, but for the untrained ear, maintain a
familiarity with their fans that keeps the album very much accepted by fans. This
instalment in the trilogy also stays true to its “power-pop” or pop-punk sound
that the band promised.
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT
FINAL RATING
7.5 (Out of 10)
Track List:
1.
|
"Nuclear Family"
|
3:03
|
2.
|
"Stay the Night"
|
4:36
|
3.
|
"Carpe Diem"
|
3:25
|
4.
|
"Let Yourself Go"
|
2:57
|
5.
|
"Kill the DJ"
|
3:41
|
6.
|
"Fell for You"
|
3:08
|
7.
|
"Loss of Control"
|
3:07
|
8.
|
"Troublemaker"
|
2:45
|
9.
|
"Angel Blue"
|
2:46
|
10.
|
"Sweet 16"
|
3:03
|
11.
|
"Rusty James"
|
4:09
|
12.
|
"Oh Love"
|
5:03
|
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