CD of The Week

It’s been quite a year for Green Day, although not quite the one the veteran trio expected. Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool announced they would follow up their overstuffed 21st Century Breakdown by musically going back to basics. However, the band recorded so many of these new, stripped-down rock and roll songs that they opted to release essentially a triple album. Spread out across five months, ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tré! would get the band back to basics, while simultaneously going bigger than ever. Unfortunately, this plan was derailed when just after¡Uno!’s release, Armstrong lashed out onstage at a national concert event and ended up in rehab. Since then, Green Day postponed all their touring and aside from some music videos recorded in advance, have been completely off the radar as ¡Dos! was released, with ¡Tré! arriving in stores this week (a month ahead of its original date).

Overall, Green Day’s 2012 output resembles their Foxboro Hot Tubs alter ego more than the expansive concept records 21st Century Breakdown or American Idiot. As the Hot Tubs, Green Day experimented with fun, ‘50s and ‘60s inspired, hooky rock n roll. This vibe is carried through much of ¡Uno! and ¡Dos!, on tracks like “Sweet 16,” “F*** Time” and “Wild One.”¡Uno! is the most Punk-y of the three releases, with the zippy opener “Nuclear Family” and brash “Let Yourself Go.” “Kill The DJ” sonically mashes up The Clash’s “Magnificent Seven” with Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out.”

¡Dos! finds the band taking more chances, most notably on “Nightlife,” a slinky, creepy trip through clublife featuring a guest rap from female MC Lady Cobra. Two of its most notable tracks close out the record: the catchy rave-up “Wow! That’s Loud” and Armstrong’s solo Amy Winehouse eulogy “Amy,” which takes on even more depth following his own trip to rehab. As for whatever demons Billie Joe has been facing, they are certainly lurking in his lyrics throughout these records, especially on ¡Uno!

¡Tré! opens with the swaying, soulful “Brutal Love,” and ends up as the most Green Day-by-numbers of the three records. “Missing You” could actually fit on Dookie. The band stretches out with the six-and-a-half minute suite “Dirty Rotten Bastards,” but it’s no “Jesus Of Suburbia.” “99 Revolutions” is a late highlight of ¡Tré!, and then the whole project wraps up with the piano & strings, lighter waving-ballad “The Forgotten,” which is the only song of its kind in the whole song cycle; quite a change from the era of “21 Guns.”

With 37 songs in total, ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tré! are just a lot of Green Day to take in, and obviously quite a mixed bag. While there are plenty of filler tracks in the mix, there are also certainly enough quality tunes in this project to satisfy fans from throughout their career. Whatever path Green Day takes in the future, let’s just hope it involves a healthy Billie Joe.