My thoughts are thus: it’s everything I expected following Revolution Radio. Green Day reached their peak over a decade ago, their only job now is to continue to put out catchy, fun sing along punk tunes to justify further touring and to stop them fading into obscurity. They have clearly tried out some different things will BJA’s vocals and general tone, but it’s still a regular modern Green Day record.
It’s a good album, but it’s nowhere near as revolutionary as Dookie or American Idiot. Maybe asking for a record of that scale again is a bit much, but they’ve done it twice before, maybe they can do it again?
Don’t get me wrong I like Green Day’s modern stuff too. But I do feel at this point they are just going through the motions. And I feel as though the attempt at imitating Eagles of Death Metal on a couple of tracks, while done well, is a tad cheap.
Also, one of my problems with Green Day is their use of swearing. Now that may seem a bit odd as I swear like a sailor, but I like to think I swear like an educated sailor. Swearing is good when used for good reason. Billie Joe’s throwaway lyric “well you can suck my cock” is a bit crude and isn’t an intelligent use of the phrase for a man nearing 50.
I get that Green Days thing is pop angst with some slightly edgy (but not really edgy) political statements thrown in but these guys have to either do something really drastic in order to remain musically relevant, or in a couple of albums time the modern Green Day sound will become boring, an album will bomb and they will go on a long hiatus to then eventually do a farewell tour with a farewell album that will most likely just be a rehash of the old school GD sound in order to play on nostalgia.
Still, for now, a quality if expected record from the pop punk trio. Worth a listen once and maybe save a couple of your favourites to your Spotify playlist, but I won’t be buying this one.
Peace, Love and Cowbells,
Oscar