Green Day - Uno!

I mean, what did I expect, the new Green Day album not to sound like a Green Day album? Clearly in their regression period. They didn’t want to lose all their fans from yesteryear and blaze their American Idiot trail until the end, so they tried to win them back with a jaunty pop punk return. A return to form, some would say, to what they were famous for. And sure, ‘iUno!’ is a fine representation of what Green Day are well known for - writing upbeat, catchy sort-of-punk songs that boil the insides of young misfit 14 year olds and leave them feeling a little bit less like the outcasts that they thought they were. And hey, who am I to say that’s a bad thing? I was that kid once. We all were. Unless you were one of of the popular kids who’s only bully was their father. Then you’re in a different club.But the underlining idea I'm trying to snobbishly smuggle into this review is that: whatever happened to moving on? Green Day, you wrote Dookie just under ten years ago, let it go. You don’t really have to give a shit about the morons who think that you should just keep remaking that album until you die of an illness mainly caused by your creativity drying up so much that you can’t even feel where it is in your body anymore.

Listening through this album, every song kind of pulls the same punch and tries to achieve the same idea with variations on the same chords and harmonies. Also, it grates a little, how much the lyrics of the songs are as angsty as their fans. And that would have been fine ten years ago or more when the band were still in the same age bracket as said fans (I mean, they were pushing the “I don’t give a fuck! fuck you! yeah!” kid punk thing for far too long by then anyway). But now, they are adults, have kids and are married and are still dressing like their fans, acting like their fans, and basically trying to fill the idea their fans want them to fill. And sure, I’m definitely not an advocate of the ‘you reach a certain age then you’re passed it and you should develop into your stagnant arm chair forever’ thing, but I dunno. If I said “the girly-punk section of Claire’s Accessories” , would you get what I meant then? Also, why are you still singing songs about chasing after girls, dude? You’ve been married for eight years. I’ll admit, I did grow up on Green Day, was a huge fan and I had a special place for them. But, I’ve moved on, and I’ve opened myself up to newer things. Maybe they should have too.

2.3

Eliot Humphreys