Sunday, November 11, 2012

My Amazon Reviews: Green Day "Uno!"

Uno a GoGo
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Green Day certainly aren't lacking for ambition. After two groundbreaking rock operas and a Broadway play, they decide it's time to revisit their roots of punk blasters. But not like they'll just rack up 12 songs and see what happens. "Uno!" is the first step in a rapid fire release date trilogy, with "Dos" and "Tre" to follow. The album is a machine gun zapper of the kind of songs that made "Dookie" a classic," with the band now sounding older loud and snotty instead of young. This is not a bad thing.

In fact, there are remnants of the Ramones that haunt a lot of these tracks, be it the immediacy of "Nuclear family" or the snap-to-it of "Let Yourself Go," that buzzsaw guitar riffing is care punk with the kind of pop-sugar coat that Green Day has excelled at for decades. Yet the band stretches on the dance ready "Kill The DJ," which is begging for a remix, or the simple and sweet "Oh Love."

What is missing are good lyrics. Too many F-Bombs sound like the band wasn't 100% ready with the words, so they just filled in the blanks with obscenities. Not that there are a lack of great couplets, like "Want to crack your cranium delirium" on the rocker "Troublemaker" or "I ain't got much time, so I'll get to the point/Do you wanna share a ride and get the f--k out of this joint" on "Stay the Night." (Which is backed up by "Carpe Diem.") "Uno!" is not a great album, but it kicks off the trilogy with a bang.


    

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