Review Summary: Two is better than one.
Two months ago, Green Day unleashed ¡Uno!, which was half good and half bad. Now, for their tenth album, Green Day go the garage-rock way. Now, believe me when I say I didn't think ¡Uno! was terrible. It had its shining moments, but it also had its fails. Now, with ¡Dos!, they have their shining moments, and there are also some failures, but there aren't as many failures on ¡Dos!.
Let's start with the bad: the opening track. Clocking in at one minute and six seconds, "See You Tonight" features lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong strumming his acoustic guitar with background noises of crackling to make the song sound old. Well, let me tell you now, it sucks. It doesn't work at all, and it doesn't really serve that good of a purpose. We could have just opened the CD with track two, "F**k Time"... which is also a flop. Armstrong tries to sound seductive and sexy, but it comes off as generic and stupid. And speaking of stupid, ¡Dos!' main flaw is the lyrics. On "Wild One", we get this nonsense: "she gave up on Jesus for living on Venus" and "I’m drinking the Kool-Aid, I jumped on the grenade". From "F**k Time", Billie exercises his love for BDSM by proclaiming during sex, he wants to "choke you till you're blue in the face". In "Lady Cobra", he mentions the Black Eyed Peas, while saying "Do you wanna play a game of twister like a dirty old man with a babysitter?" and in "Makeout Party", he asks "Do you want to spin the bottle, play a game of chicken?"
Besides the lyrics, another flop is "Nightlife", which features the female rapper Lady Cobra from the group Mystic Knights of the Cobra. Billie's voice is electronically enhanced (SELLOUT!) and the song features a hell of a lot of rap (MORE SELLOUT!) which crap lines like "hope there's more in your pants then a bus route" and "your sugar-coated balls". Nice trying to be sexy, Ms. Cobra.
Oh, and the last track is a "special" track because it's the only 13th song in the trilogy: the other albums have 12. The special track is "Amy", a tribute song to Amy Winehouse, which is rather sweet, but also NOT A TRIBUTE TRACK. The chorus has lines like "Do you wanna be a friend of mine", which makes it sound like Billie is talking to a 10 year old. She's dead, Billie. She can't "be your friend", or "write you a lullaby", or "have this last dance". It comes off as half-tribute track and half-love song.
As for the rest of the songs: "Stop When the Red Lights Flash". It's a fast, catchy, kick-ass punk rock track with a hook of "I'll make you surrender!" "Lazy Bones" is an ode to being a lazy ass, like "Longview", just not as good, plus it robs "Give Me Novacaine" off of American Idiot. Despite the said monstrosities, "Wild One" is a good, slow song that doesn't accomplish much other than take up four minutes of album time. "Makeout Party" is a fast, garage-rock song that has Billie singing as fast as he can to rack up lines like "I think I wanna rub it the wrong way" and "Gonna get crowded with bad intention".
The real garage rock starts at "Stray Heart", the first single, with its catchy hook of "Anything that I want, I want from you, but I just can't have you". The next track, "Ashley", is fast punk garage rock with lyrics about drugs. "Baby Eyes" is just like Ashley, but they sound completely different, with the lyrics this time being about... well, I don't know.
"Lady Cobra" is filler. "Nightlife" sucks. "Wow! That's Loud" is catchy garage rock about looking at your friend's slutty clothing. And "Amy" is half good, half bad.
My final verdict? ¡Dos! easily trumps ¡Uno!, but has major lyrical flaws and some horrid tracks. The other tracks are mainly solid, with some filler thrown in between.
PROS
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The garage rock sound.
We get some fast, catchy punk.
"Stop When the Red Lights Flash"
"Stray Heart"
"Ashley"
"Baby Eyes"
"Wow! That's Loud"
CONS
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The horrible lyrics.
Filler tracks.
"See You Tonight"
"F**k Time"
"Lady Cobra"
"Nightlife"
