Green day - At It Again

I'm going to see them in concert on the 29th of January... But that's beside the point.

!UNO!

Album Art

Green Day, now in their 25th year (formed in 1987), is releasing a trio of albums to bring their total dick count up to 11 studio albums (setting aside their 'greatest hits' types and the Live performances such as their Bullet in a Bible live concert release). !UNO!, !DOS!, and !TRE! have brought a new twist to the old Green Day sound and I've come to bring you a little taste of !UNO! today.

Now their best song on the new album (in my opinion) has to be... A toss up haha. In all truthfulness I can't pick a single song but between Loss of Control and Sweet 16 you can get a pretty decent grip on the entire album. It seems to me that the songs tell a mashed up tale of love, loss, bitterness and nostalgia and these two piece bring out those tones perfectly.

Loss of Control - !Explicit Lyrics Ahead!

Yeah I figure I'll toss the warning up there just in case there's some misguided 12 year old reading this... However I've heard worse language from kids in my town so I don't think there could be much damage. ANYWAY.

There's a lot of resentment, social awkwardness, and a general distaste for what can only be assumed was a rather traumatising high school experience. The obvious stuff is fine but if you ask me this runs a bit deeper than that. To me, this song represents a rebellion against any and all things of the past that make their attempts to cling to the impending future. Being a fake asshole only gets you so far in life and Billy's fine with throwing that fact out there with lines like "we never had anything in common and I never liked you anyway". Let's face it, who HASN'T been at some social function where they've had to act nice and make small talk? And who of you hasn't at some point wanted to just tell someone that the latest story about their cat's sore tooth just isn't the conversational highlight that they seem to think it is?

Now I do find it odd that Billie Joe, now 40, is singing with the attitude of youthful revolt... Let's face it the 'youthful' days of the band should've been over and done with after American Idiot after taking a serious stand against the policies of former American President George W. Bush. However we find them back in an old, well-worn but still comfortable pair of shoes with Loss of Control and with a couple of other !UNO! tracks. The attitude is odd for the age of the artists, but at least they're not using yesterday's tune for yesterday's issues. It's a matured topic range (if only slightly) and the growth to me is something to be appreciated as most bands never hold a punk edge of any sort as they age and release new material. It'd be easy for Green Day to go on tour with their International Superhits tracks, but it would just be regurgitating the exact same tunes without any creativity.

Sweet 16 - Growth and Nostalgia

Sweet 16 takes you back no matter who you are. It brings you along on a ride into the past where things at the very least SEEMED to be simpler. It will likely remind the listener of someone that they spent time with in their younger days regardless of the specific events in that relationship. It's a feel-good song even with the obvious longing for the past but at least it's a positive set of memories and not some brooding, angsty list of whines and complaints.

Now I do note 'growth" in the subheading for the track and I think it fits. Far away from acting like some adolescent kid wishing their parents would leave them alone (Simple Plan hate slid in there... They deserve it) Billie takes time to play with his falsetto voice, and to soften up the 'alternative punk-rock' sound that's made the band what it is today. It's good to see him stepping out of the box a bit if even for just one or two tracks on the album.

So there's a little insight into the album... I hope you've enjoyed my takes on the songs but in case you'd like to review the album at-length, here's the whole thing in one video or you know... You could go out and BUY the album at your local music store (don't bother going to Walmart though as Green Day refuses to censor their albums just to be allowed onto Walmart shelves).

Enjoy your swim!

Complete Album: