Green Day
¡UNO!

Release Date: 2012 | Tracklist

One of my favorite old sayings about a band with a rabid fan base is that "they could release an album of themselves farting into the mic and their fans will still like it." As a self-aware avid fan of Green Day, I do admit that ¡Uno! is, in fact, the musical equivalent of them farting into the mic. The truth is, however, that most bands of their ilk have been doing the same as of late, and my high rating stems from the fact that Green Day's farts sound much better than the flatulence recently emitted by most other aging pop-punk bands whose seminal album is more than ten years old.

I'm still trying to grapple with the fact that Green Day has released a bunch of songs that I flat out don't enjoy; however, I believe ¡Uno! is the best out out of the trilogy because it contains the least amount of cringe-worthy songs, and the most amount of somewhat original songs. Unfortunately, the songs hardly contain any overlap of originality and not cringe-worthiness, but the results are still pretty enjoyable. To illustrate, Nuclear Family is a catchy little number that has the ability to get stuck in people's heads, but musically it sounds like a polished track off of Insomniac (lyrically is a much different story). On the other side, Green Day has never wrote a song like "Kill the DJ," but the song has flat-out awful lyrics. The only example of a song that exemplifies both ends of the spectrum is "Oh Love," a catchy song that sounds more ebullient than anything they've ever wrote at mid-tempo. Furthermore, the chorus packs a happy, chilled-out punch that earned it a well-deserved number one spot on the rock charts. Nevertheless, I wouldn't quite call any song on this album, or even trilogy, "classic Green Day" besides "Oh Love," but the fact that the album has the poppy Green Day touch makes it a great one.

In terms of the aforementioned comparison, almost every former pop-punk band facing maturity seems to fall into one of two categories: 1) trying to distance themselves from pop-punk but ultimately sounding like idiots or 2) trying to claim more "trueness" than other pop-punk bands, but also ultimately sounding like idiots. I could fill pages with examples of each, but the funniest of category 1 is Kristopher Roe of the Ataris saying "I think So Long, Astoria stood out because it's a genreless [sic] album. It's just a rock album." For those of you just as intelligent as Mr. Roe, "rock" is a genre of music. The most humorous of category 2 is Chad Gilbert of New Found Glory, the band that released the slowed down, mature album Coming Home, saying “‘Mature’ does not mean you slow down and get experimental with your sounds. People say ‘You know, I wish they’d mature.’ That’s not mature. That’s immature." When farts like these are heard everywhere, the flatulence emitted by Green Day's ¡Uno! begins to smell more aromatic. ¡Uno! is the sound of Green Day trying to sit with AC/DC at the big kids table at the Rock Hall, and that's completely fine when compared with the previous examples, as well as the more direct one of Tom Delonge trying to sound like U2. You see, Bono can sing high notes and the Edge consistently uses more than power chords. Conversely, Tom Delonge's voice cracks when he tries to hit high notes and hardly ever strays from power chords; however, he thinks using studio effects is just as good as performing with actual talent. Compared with this example, Green Day, a band that relies on power chords, emulating a band that primarily uses power chords makes the context of ¡Uno! sound much better. It's basic, it's retractive, but it is also comfortably and enjoyably self-aware.

In short, ¡Uno! is the sound of a band with nothing left to prove making their victory lap into the Rock Hall. For everyone outside of their rabid fan base, I can see why it would be a throwaway album. However, for anyone enamored with them or the scene they nurtured, it's a new set of songs to obsess over, and breadth of slightly more fresh air among all the stale flatulence stemming from other aging pop-punk bands. Nevertheless, thank you all for helping me procrastinate.

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2.4 average

Rank: #0 for 2012