New Green Day album ¡Uno! a triumphant return

After two politically charged rock operas, Green Day returns to its pop-punk roots in their latest album, ¡Uno!, the first of a threealbum trilogy. Those who think that the band could not possibly come up with enough good material for three albums don't know that the first one is filled with solid material from start to finish. Green Day themselves described this record as more pop-like than the upcoming albums, and it certainly shows. Many of the melodies are so catchy that you will
swear you've known them your entire life. Perhaps the highlight of the album is "Kill the DJ," a song that has an incredibly infectious chorus and guitar melody. This song is a first for Green Day in that it is a dance song, similar in style to Franz Ferdinand. The arrangements of the songs are also more stripped down compared to those in American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown, as these songs usually feature just guitar, bass and drums. The lack of theatrical flourishes makes the album sound more like their earlier material. Billie Joe Armstrong may be 40 years old, but he is still the master at expressing angst. One new theme that he tackles is mortality,
best illustrated by "Carpe Diem," in which he sings, "Carpe diem, a battle cry/Aren't we all too young to die?" He expresses his sexual frustrations in the lead single "Oh Love," singing "Far away, far away, waste away tonight/I'm wearing my heart on a noose." The song "Loss of Control" is Armstrong at
his angriest, as he sneers through vocals too harsh to be put into print. ¡Uno! is Green Day as we remember them: slacker-punks who really don't have anything important to say. While their previous rock operas were by no means bad, it's great to see the trio letting loose and having fun again in the studio. Although there are some minor issues (Armstrong still tends to overemphasize curse words), Green Day has proven that even after over 20 years, they still find new ways to entertain.