After such socially broad albums like American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown, no one is really sure what to make of Green Day’s new trilogy. The first installment of the trilogy, ¡UNO!, left fans wanting with its lackluster content and over-commercialized sound and ¡DOS! seems doomed for the same fate. While Green Day does get back to their garage-rock roots, you can’t help but wonder what is going on in the heads of Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool with this album.
Tracks like “F*ck Time” and “Makeout Party” sounds like something a college-band full of frat boys would sing. In fact most of the tracks could have been written by frat boys because the lyrical content rarely strays away from getting laid and partying. “Wild One” and “Ashley” are basically less awesome versions of “Last of the American Girls” (one of the best tracks off of 21st Century Breakdown). “Stray Heart”, “Baby Eyes” and “Lazy Bones” redeem the album ever so slightly with their catchy hooks and solid melodies, but they still lack in lyrical content.
As if the listener hasn’t been thrown for enough of a loop, the band throws in “Nightlife”, a hazy-drunken song about a girl who is “his nightlife”. The song features a rap from Lady Cobra (Monica Painter) which in and of itself is good, but the song might have been better off as a track on a Lady Cobra album than a part of this album.
The last song on the album “Amy” is dedicated to the late Amy Winehouse. This track is a bittersweet with just Armstrong’s vocals and some guitar as he warbles “Amy, please don’t go.” This song is by far one of the only bright spots of this album.
¡DOS! is is due out November 13th and is available for pre-order here. Green Day has cancelled their current tour dates due to Billie Joe Armstrong’s stint in rehab after his iHeartRadio rant, but keep an eye out for future dates because you can’t keep a good band down – even if they put out a bad album.
