Review Summary: Fun riffs with boring vocals... ¡Uno! could have been way better!
Green Day is one of the most recognized Pop-Punk Rock band. As of today, they have released nine albums including ¡Uno!. Since 1990, the band has always been the trio of Billy Joe Armstrong (vocals and guitar), Tré Cool (drums) and Mike Dirnt (bass). While they aren't the best instrumentalists they have always been known to bring energy and fun riffs to the listener.
The records starts with
Nuclear family, a fun punk rock song driven by a classic Green Day riff along with Armstrong vocals. Up until
Let Yourself Go, the record is really fun to listen to. With
Stay The Night and
Carpe Diem's memorable choruses and song progression, this is a classic
Green Day album. It's when you hear
Kill The DJ that it hits you: Armstrong sounds really tired. By that I mean that it feels as thought he was bored during the recording. This, of course, gives no energy to the listener and makes the songs sound less fun. The only song where Armstrong is giving everything he has is on
Let Yourself Go, a fun energetic punk rock song.
Only a few songs are worth remembering (the first four), with most of the other ones either fillers or just average songs.
Kill The DJ is probably the worst song on this album, although it has a funky rhythm that sounds like
Red Hot Chili Peppers, the song is a true filler ending on a repetition of “someone kill the DJ/Shoot the f***ing DJ”. It almost sounds like
Green Day was trying to release a radio hit single (which is probably what they were doing).
Fell For You will only bring a smile on you when you hear the chorus but has nothing more interesting.
Loss Of Control and
Troublemaker both have fun and very energetic riffs but the chorus doesn't go with the flow of the songs. Although
Angel Blue and
Rustly James aren't bad, they just don't stand out as the first four songs of the record did. The album ends on
Oh Love, the first single out of this record, another average song that you'll forget as soon as it ends.
Musically, this album is made out of basic power chords and classic Punk Rock drumming pattern. Although there are some solos, none will stand out and they will all be forgotten as soon as you listen to something else. As said before, Armstrong vocals are the weak part of this album. Although his voice is one of the trademarks of
Green Day, his lack of energy makes every song boring.
Green Day played it safe with this album and used their trademark sound instead of trying something new. That could have been good if Armstrong had a little more energy to give but this ends up in an average record. A few songs stand out but none will rival with any of their previous work. ¡Uno! is the first of three releases (¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, ¡Tres!), a serie that will be released from september 2012 to january 2013.
