REVOLUTION RADIO
Green Day
IN December last year, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong tweeted: “My mission for 2016? To destroy the phrase ‘pop-punk’ forever”.
Well, whatever he meant aside, Green Day’s first album in four years is here.
After the band’s public meltdown in 2012, surprise release Revolution Radio serves as a sort of comeback. It may not be groundbreaking like American Idiot
(2004) but their efforts are still commendable.
The now sober Billie Joe sure has a lot of catching up to do, after spiralling into alcohol abuse and rehab sessions. As the saying goes, even superheroes bleed. And in this album there’s the good and the bad.
Some lyrics are cringe-worthy and filled with empty appeals, like “I got a sentimental illness for you. Please don’t go away, oh yeah” in Too Dumb To Die
and “I got my photobomb, I got my Vietnam, I love a lie just like everybody else” in Bang Bang.
But thankfully the overall production is pretty decent. The lyric video for Revolution Radio is also worth checking out.
The album’s title track showcases the band’s most mature rendition of pop-punk as well. Kicking off with an unexpected acoustic guitar-heavy intro of Somewhere Now, the track then led into the band’s more comfortable pop-punk territory. The transition wasn’t the smoothest but
somehow worked.
“When there’s nothing to lose. It’s a small price we pay. When we all die
in threes,” Billie Joe sings cryptically.
Bang Bang on the other hand, instantly identifies the band — it’s so Green Day.
Other notable tracks are Outlaws, which has garnered a million-plus plays on Spotify, the hook-heavy, catchy guitar-driven Too Dumb To
Die and the ambitious 7-minute-long Forever
Now.
Overall, it’s the band’s brand of pop-punk music as the trio head over to greener pastures.
★★★★★