Year in Rock 2012 Nominee: Green Day

GREEN DAY

Let Yourself Go

From: ¡Uno!

Released: September 25

Who knew 2012 would be such a tumultous year for Green Day? What started as a relatively harmless gimmick (release three distinctly different albums) turned into a Grade A shit show. A promotional gauntlet leading up to the release of the first album in the trilogy culminated in scores of fans pleading overexposure and frontman Billie Joe Armstrong admitting overdrinking (his entry into rehab stemmed from a gloriously unhinged rant at a web-broadcasted concert event). And yet, under all the layers of attention, the albums are best taken at face value. The problem is, taken at face value what should have been accepted as a bold and ambitious event was shrugged off as more than a little underwhelming. Perhaps it's the scattershot consistency of the tracks; for every song that earns a place alongside some of the band's best work, there's a song that's woefully similar to a song they've already done better or a wild stylistic detour that falls on its face as an outright embarrassment. Then, there's the sheer spectrum of the music; the trilogy finds Green Day fiddling around with so many genres and sub-genres that it's impossible to find the slightest hint of cohesion. Also, for all the maturity Armstrong has shown as a lyricist in recent years, so many of these songs just aren't up to snuff, compensating a lack of good lyrical ideas with an overabundance of clichés and F-bombs. When it clicks (as it does on the raucous Let Yourself Go), it's easy to remember what made them so endearing. But, when it fails (as it does at least to a point on a little more than half of the trilogy's 37 songs), you can't help but wonder if Green Day is still worth our affection.