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.
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