Editor’s note: The following reflects the opinions of the author.
After a re-introduction to the band’s original roots with “¡Uno!,” Green Day’s “¡Dos!,” the second in the anticipated three-part series, is jumbled, confused, and generally inaccessible to listeners.
The album features a lot of experimental songwriting, which is unexpected given the intentions of “¡Uno!” After this long, it’s pretty unimaginable that the band is secretly skilled in something other than what they’ve done their whole career, and all that this album seems to do is verify that claim.
Regardless of new methods, it’s apparent to anyone who listens that this album is Green Day trying really hard to not be Green Day.
The track “F— Time”, full of wannabe classic rock guitar riffs and lyrics riddled with the word “baby”, sounds exactly like the “Foxboro Hottubs,” the band’s alter-ego/side project. To find this sort of song on the album, especially given the pop-punk feel of “¡Uno!” is somewhat disheartening.
Similarly, the song “Makeout Party” is just plain weird and sounds like Green Day trying really hard to be strange in another Foxboro reject. With bluesy bass solos, an aspect that’s very strange for the band, the song sounds almost like a fake rockabilly tune written for karaoke.
Lots of the songs carry that same almost classic sense, and in some cases it works. “Stray Heart” is sweet, crooning 1950’s era boy-band style with the addition of modern bouncy guitar.
Some songs like “Lazy Bones”, which is filled with the mild melodies and Strokes-esque guitar, offer the sort of upbeat angst with no risk in the style that “¡Uno!” foreshadowed. “Lady Cobra” follows this formula but ultimately sounds far too familiar, like the White Stripes on steroids.
By far the strangest aspect of this album, and ultimately where the jumbled nature of the rest of the songs really falls apart, is the track “Nightlife”, the band’s first attempt at a legitimate rap song. The song begins as somewhat “cool”, simple and bassline-heavy, but immediately falls apart as soon as the female rapper, a girl apparently by the name of Lady Cobra, starts.
It’s weird. Like, really weird – it almost sounds like what would happen if the Spice Girls tried to be “hip” and “dark” sometime in the early 2000’s and failed miserably.
The final song on the album “Amy,” is actually great, musical, and simple. It’s completely unlike “old” Green Day in terms of their unique sense of melody and timing, but in a way that doesn’t seem to try too hard and actually works really well on its own.
In the context of the album on the whole, however, the value is unfortunately lost among the other unsuccessful experiments.
Review: Two out of four stars.
Story: LOVEY COOPER, A&E Reporter