Green Day - ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! & ¡Tré! Review

One of the least surprising and least interesting stories of last year was Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong doing a very typical rock and roll thing. After channelling faux rage for being cutshort on a televised show, his publicist’s blamed numerous niggling issues and off to rehab he went. 

Unsurprisingly; this all took place during the release of Green Day’s album trilogy and perhaps most unsurprising of all; no one mentioned that the events which manifested into said breakdown; might explain just why mind-bogglingly average the three records are. 

Originally; I was going to review each album but this proved to be problematic for the simple reason of…I only listened to ¡Uno! just days before ¡Dos! was due for release and it became apparent that all three records could be covered in one review. 

That and I’m lazy, but anyway.

The easiest way to sum up the sound of each album is ¡Uno! tries to capture the Green Day of old (so basically, everything before American Idiot). ¡Dos! is more experimental as it strips back the sound and ¡Tré! tries to combine the two (along with a few nods to the bands Rock-Opera albums). 

In the simplest terms; there’s very little to distinguish each album although it’s ¡Dos!, by far that offers the strongest material of the three albums. 

It starts off strong with See You Tonight and Fuck Time and ends well with Nightlife (notable for its much needed injection of Lady Cobra’s vocals) and the Amy Winehouse tribute Amy and, although it’s no where near as impressive as the older Green Day’s material; the song’s shorter length help make the record sound more focused, free-flowing and easier on the ears.

That’s not to say the other two have strong material either. ¡Uno!’s dance punk inspired Kill the DJ is funky with a nice chorus. For choruses however; Let Yourself Go has, by far, the best on ¡Uno!. Although it’s simple and more than a nod to latter day Green Day’s stadium rock, it’s more than effective and rounds off the first third of the album rather well. 

¡Tré! in the meantime is more sparring with worthwhile songs but does have the odd number sprinkled throughout. Dirty Rotten Bastards, despite sounding like an American Idiot reject, is six minutes of fun. The song that best describes Green Day’s intention with the album is Sex, Drugs and Violence, with decent bridge and lyrics that rhyme the song’s title with “English, maths and science!”

Lyrics however aren’t particularly strong on any of the albums; euphemism heavy Nuclear Family somehow combines “Drinking Angel’s piss” and, no surprises, a nuclear bomb to little effect. 99 Revolutions in the meanwhile is a protest song that arrives far, far too late to the Occupy party, with heavy-hand…no, scratch that, stated lyrics to the incoming battle of ninety-nine to one.

Whilst the lyrics aren’t surprisingly that important in the grand scheme of things (they’re not telling an album’s narrative, like American Idiot or 21st Century Breakdown), the music, despite being stretched across three albums, is pretty generic and that of a band that has expended their energy to the point of dilution. 

Whilst hardened fans will see the appeal of owning all three albums and seeing the very slight tweaks between the three, the most tragic aspect of the release is just how unbearably long and generic each individual album feels. 

It’s the unfortunate scenario that plagues so many albums; you hear three, maybe four decent tracks and the rest being watered down rehashes and nothing more. What doesn’t help is that Green Day, after twenty years in the business, has released, not only better songs, but entire albums that offer better material. 

There’s a sense that the band is desperate for the same critical adulation and respect they garnered from the olden days, before they became the poster men for anti-establishment rock-operas and, in a few brief blemishes, they not only recapture that spirit, but offer fresher takes with more innovative ideas that spawn entertaining songs. 

But for the most part, the trilogy is a sad affair of a band that, despite twenty years of mileage, numerous pop-punk anthems under their belts and live shows that make other bands stand aghast at the energy and duration that’s offered, have created a trilogy of albums so overly long, so generic and with so much pandering, that it’s unbearably difficult to listen to. 

Songs such as Troublemaker, Oh Love, Lazy Bones, Ashley, Brutal Love, A Little Boy Named Train and so many more are nothing more than filler; offering either poor, tired retakes of older, better songs or being generic three minute pop-punk songs with the same formula of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus and offering nothing more, to the point where you wonder just how on earth did Green Day ever get to the position of one of the planet’s biggest bands. 

This brings me back to my first paragraph. Despite the length of their careers, despite all the hits and even critical adulation; Green Day has never been a rock and roll band to beat. They do everything humanly possible to up the ante and have been doing so for over twenty years but after twenty years; it’s apparent, for all to see, that the tyres are balding, the engine’s faltering and the slightest knock will cause the entire thing to fall to pieces. 

Does the trilogy do this? Only time will tell, but after over two decades; if the trilogy does present itself as the final releases by Green Day, much like the band’s lifespan; it’s got it’s moments, but for the most part, it’s goes on for far, far too long and there’s little to distinguish between each track and ultimately, it’s a letdown. 

¡Uno! – 5/10 

¡Dos! – 6/10 

¡Tré!  – 4/10 

H

@Retcon_Nation