With all the new artists emerging and the original rock sound of music being lost slowly to the techno and new pop age, Green Day emerges back on the scene after a three year hiatus with their new album “¡Uno!” released Sep. 25. Loud, fast, and very much pop-punk, “¡Uno!” does not dissatisfy fans of the band.
“¡Uno!” revolves around much of the bands original punk rock sound, very closely resembling the sound of their 1994 album “Dookie“. The band decided to abandon the narrative, rock-opera style of their two previously released albums, including bestselling record American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown.
In an interview with Guitar World, lead singer and song writer of Green Day, Billie Joe Armstrong, stated, “It gave me the freedom as a songwriter just to start getting into the fun of playing music again, changing things up.”
Even bigger news than the success of their newly released album is the fact that they have two more coming out within a few months’ time. Green Day’s second album ¡Dos! will be released Nov. 13 and their third, ¡Tré!, a play off Green Day’s drummer’s name Tré Cool, will be released January of next year.
Armstrong explained how coming up with the songs for the three albums wasn’t as big a challenge as everyone seems to believe it to be and that his creativity sprouted from the people around him. Throughout 2010 and 2011, Armstrong spent most of his time performing in the Broadway performance of American Idiot inNew York. He continued on to say how being around all the performers really brought out his inner artist.
“Surrounded by all the creativity, I just couldn’t help it; I started writing songs,” Armstrong said.
Fans and critics also were worried about the fact that these three albums are coming out a mere two months apart from each other. How would this affect the quality of the songs and their lyrics? However, worries were abandoned after hearing the first album.
“¡Uno!” is a nice break from the constant story telling of American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown, and though the songs seem like an odd compilation, the all-around pop-punk sound keeps the songs alive and kicking. As sung in the first song on the album, Nuclear Family, Armstrong sings how they’re “Gonna rock the world like a merry-go-round,” and that the band is doing well, once again making the top #10 chart for the second month in a row.
Armstrong also explains how many of the songs on the album represent how much he has grown and evolved in his music and his take on everything around on him, such as shown in the songs ‘Oh Love’ and ‘Sweet 16’.
“I’ve gone through 20-something years just documenting how some of those feelings have changed and how you evolved from a kid to an ex-kid, to a man child, or whatever you want to call it. You realize how juvenile, maybe, some of your feelings still are. And sometimes you see how you evolved as an individual,” Armstrong mused.
Armstrong further proves his evolution as a person in another hit-song on the album, Carpe Diem, sending across a message of the difficulties we face every day, while still maintaining the upbeat, punk feel of the traditional Green Day style.
All and all, at the end of the day, after 15 years of producing music and nine fulfilling albums later, “¡Uno!” is proof that Green Day has not lost its touch in the music industry as fans eagerly wait for the next installment.