Review Summary: Green Day bring their trilogy of albums to a close with an anthemic bang, but above all, a surprisingly different album for the band.
In retrospect, the first two installments in Green Day’s trilogy of stripped down punk rock albums had distinct qualities about them that distinguished them from each other even while both albums were simple in nature at face value.
¡Uno! was arguably the furthest the band had ever delved into power pop and bubblegum pop punk, while
¡Dos! on the other hand, was Green Day’s first ever late night party record in a way, and reeked with the Clash-inspired grime of UK garage rock that the band had previously ventured further into with their alter ego side-band, Foxboro Hot Tubs. While both were the same straight-forward punk rock at heart that’s been Green Day’s signature for years, the two were decorated as complete opposites, which raises the question as to what the concluding part of the trilogy,
¡Tré!, sounds like.
¡Tré! appropriately acts as a grand finale to the trilogy, demonstrated well by kicking off the album with a grandiose opening track that’s just as well suited to be the albums ending track. Clocking in 5 seconds shy of a 5 minute runtime, - not to mention significantly longer than any track off of both
¡Uno! and
¡Dos!, except for
¡Uno!’s closer “Oh Love” - the swaying punk rock power ballad “Brutal Love” gives a first impression that
¡Tré! may potentially serve as Green Day’s arena rock album, but listeners will find that
¡Tré! actually proves to be the most varied album in the trilogy.
Though it still has its share of epic anthems by Green Day’s standards, the most standout of which being the over 6 minutes long theatrical foot-stomper “Dirty Rotten Bastards”,
¡Tré! also sees string elements implemented into the piano-driven album closer “The Forgotten", features the sunny and delicate acoustically-structured piece “Drama Queen”, and all around has a certain clarity and refined edge to the production that makes these songs more akin to alternative rock than any number on any past Green Day album.
¡Tré! actually has a much more uplifting and cheerful spirit in general than the preceding entries in the trilogy. It’s not sugary and brattish like
¡Uno!, and it’s nothing like the coarse dinginess of
¡Dos!, but the all around chipper mood is all that really connects this album together, because while its diversity is more than welcome in the last album of the trilogy,
¡Tré! never really feels like it has a consistent theme of its own that identifies it, like the ones
¡Uno! and
¡Dos! each possessed.
Even if it's somewhat inconsistent in doing so,
¡Tré! explores avenues of its own that makes it unique and clearly sets it apart from the band’s albums that came before it both in the trilogy it’s apart of, and Green Day’s discography in general. It has an almost reflective tone that reminisces on the trilogy-long journey, stumbles and all, and works appropriately as a grand and anthemic way to close the curtain on the trilogy with a triumphant stride that leaves behind a feeling of even better things to come in the future. Most importantly though, it’s the first album in the trilogy that acts as if it’s an album of its own, and not just apart of a series.
