I decided to write this post, because I’m only three tracks into this new Green Day album and maybe I’m just overly nit-picky or something but EVERY song reminds me of one of their past outings. One noteworthy thing with this is that Uno, Dos and Tre, while not necessarily underrated, did have a lot of good material that got overlooked by way of the project’s sheer mass.
..
“Somewhere Now” reminds me of “Rusty James” on Uno.
This tune I remember was about the exact same pace or so, and had a similar penchant for belting out those escalating guitar riffs. At this point you certainly start to wonder about whether there’s actually any NEW VISION bound up in this 2016 album, but nonetheless, the band sound pretty into it, and Tre Cool is lettin’ it rip with ferocity and precision.
..
“Bang Bang” reminds me of “Let Yourself Go” on Uno.
Granted, this Uno songs sucks, and “Bang Bang” is one of those fiery track two’s along with Pearl Jam’s “Mind Your Manners” and The Strokes’ “Juicebox” — a slight change in mood, a little harder and darker than you were expecting.
..
“Revolution Radio” reminds me of “Extraordinary Girl” on American Idiot.
Cheesy song, in both cases, but this one has just enough precocious power to push it past what now seems like teeny bopper “concept album” stuff they were doing then… then again, most people hated Green Day so much for no reason that it would be hard to imagine them having any desire to actually rock, for its own sake, the way yes they certainly seem to now. I guess they’re not the only tree in the forest.
..
“Say Goodbye”
This song reminds me of the song “Welfare Mothers” from Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s album Rust Never Sleeps.
No real reason to explain this one, I guess.
..
Just a couple more notes on this album, since I realize it’s a little late to review it: what doesn’t work sonically is Billie Joe’s whiny voice, and what does work sonically is the awesome, fragile electric guitar sound on the openings of songs like “Outlaws.”
Clearly, they were self-borrowing to a considerable extent all over side a of this album, and they get away with it, by and large, partly since very few people seem to have actually heard the entireties of Uno, Dos and Tre (I’m hoping at least the record execs gave the albums full duration), and partly because this band was about as popular as Adolf Hitler, at least in the hipster town of Bloomington, Indiana, where I was, circa American Idiot.
I would not classify side b of this album as as intensely encapsulating of self-emulation, but I would like to say that I’d like Revolution Radio better if from the start they’d been more willing to right away thresh out all this originality that side b brags of. Literally just flip side a and side b and I’d be a lot more excited right now. “Too Dumb to Die,” track 9, is an excellent, rejuvenating standout, and “Troubled Times” is almost too dark and real to even believe, unless of course you’ve heard “F.O.D.” Revolution Radio (grant it some credit for its titular prescience, as it did come out before the election of Trump, not going to get into the prospective phenomenon of LSD granting clairvoyance, yada yada)… but fortunately for me, as I just spent $12 on the CD at Best Buy, it does come with a certain crash. And… here’s where I hope the prescience ends.