Album Review: Green Day - '¡Uno!'

After twenty-five years as a band and eight records, Green Day don't seem to be running out of steam, opting to release an album trilogy over the next few months as their next offering.

The once underground punks have been busy, creating a hit Broadway show based on their 'American Idiot' album and even adding a fourth member to the group, while apparently writing a whole bunch of new music. If the first instalment of the forthcoming album trilogy '¡Uno!' is anything to go by however, things will become pretty stale by the third record.

There have certainly been moments (especially on 'American Idiot') where the band have broken the mould and ventured to new ground, and this is a necessary move to keep the listeners hooked in and interested, and surely to challenge the band members themselves. There have always the power chord wonders that Green Day have made their own present throughout all of the records though, but with '¡Uno!' every song falls into this category. Adding the fact that the catchy chorus lines and unique elements of these punk wonders are few and far between, the album is one, long, standard power chord outing which sounds like everything you know and expect from Green Day pasted into a new slab.

The songs all stick to similar structures, the guitar tones haven't changed in about fifteen years and lyrical content has been seriously dumbed down. The one exception could be the funk/rock of 'Kill The DJ', which brings a welcome change of pace to the rest of the album, albeit not the best type of change with the band crafting a perfectly sculpted radio hit for the dance pop generation.

The reason why this record will be somewhat of a hit with the diehard fan base is its obvious similarities to ‘Dookie,’ mainly the “simple” approach to easily digestible punk music. It however lacks the raw feel of ‘Dookie,’ the fact that you believed back then that Billie Joe was a desperate loser who meant what he said. ‘¡Uno!’ however has a sheen about it, despite the Rob Cavallo production, and the feel that the group have released a record mainly full of filler.

As Green Day get set to release their upcoming trilogy, ‘¡Uno!’ tells us that they would probably have been better off picking the best tracks and releasing one solid record, than three medicore ones. Time will tell if they can lift their game...

1. Nuclear Family
2. Stay The Night
3. Carpe Diem
4. Let yourself Go
5. Kill The DJ
6. Fell For You
7. Loss Of Control
8. Troublemaker
9. Angel Blue
10. Sweet 16
11. Rusty James
12. Oh Love