Review Summary: Let's try this again.
I need to apologize. The first review I posted was overlong, unfocused, and full of humor that just didn't work and I'd like to thank those who commented on the video offering constructive criticism. I wrote what I hesitate to call a review after listening to the album once through and flew into what was basically a fit of fanboy rage. Hopefully after receiving the criticism and letting the album settle with me a bit longer, this will contain more focused and concise criticism.
So after letting it sit, I still don't like the thing all that much. It's a rather poor attempt at going back to basics, and despite some bright spots, it fails overall. What saves it from a lower score is the effort on the songs here, even if it was misplaced. It's also never unlistenable (with one exception), something I failed to get across in my first review. When the songs are underwhelming, they usually have a catchy hook to fall back on. It's a significant improvement over the Uno, Dos, and Tre trilogy, but it could've been a good deal more.
The album starts with Somewhere Now, a quiet and then suddenly explosive track, and it's only real flaw is that it sounds an awful lot like Homecoming from American Idiot. I don't find this to be a bad thing, though, it actually works in the songs favor. The next two songs are the singles Bang Bang and Revolution Radio, a couple of great songs that gave me hope for this album when I first heard them and when I was listening to them when I got hold of the album. Say Goodbye is where we run into problems. The song is painfully repetitive, repeating the same few lines over and over, and while it's far from unlistenable musically, it's also far from inspired or particularly interesting. The fifth track is entitled Outlaws and it's pretty good, if not spectacular. It's written about Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt's longstanding friendship and the song is rather touching because of this, it just starts to feel it's runtime.
After Outlaws is Bouncing Off the Wall, which is just not good at all, frankly. It's an attempt at a roaring punk party anthem, but commits the sin of actually being written about a party. The riff is catchy enough to keep the song from being awful, but the lyrics and it's lack of anything interesting kill the song's chances at memorability. Still Breathing follows this, and it's also not really memorable at all. I was into it at first, but it just became more milquetoast the more I listened to it. It has a problem most of the album has, the production. It's clean and shiny to the point of unpleasantness, kneecapping even some of the best songs. Youngblood, is memorable, though. For all the wrong reasons. It's probably in the top 3 worst songs they've ever written. Lyrically, it's nonsensical as all get-out and musically, it is so horribly boring when it is trying so hard to be exciting. Following this is Too Dumb to Die, and it's just ok. Not as offensive as Youngblood, but like most of Revolution Radio, it's just not particularly compelling or interesting. It just sounds like a song they've written a thousand times. Troubled Times sounds straight off of 21st Century Breakdown. Speaking as a fan, maybe not the best era to emulate, guys. It also incredibly nondescript, containing patented political Green Day lyrics that boil down to "stuff is bad." And that's fine if the song has something interesting to fall back on. The second to last track is Forever Now, and it's just tiresome. Far too long, especially when they're just recycling bits from Somewhere Now. This is a move that can be a good tie in for the album as a whole or it can come off as just lazy. It's the latter in this case. The final track is Ordinary World, a nice enough acoustic song to cap things off. Not a whole lot to say, the lyrics aren't anything to write home about, but it's pretty good musically, if you like that kind of thing.
So Revolution Radio is a disappointment, as far as I'm concerned. But as opposed to being just plain bad like the trilogy, it seems to be resigned to conventionality and safe choices. Aside from Youngblood, it's entirely listenable and liking it is entirely understandable. I guess it just didn't do much for me.
