CD REVIEW: Green Day “Uno”

Green Day “Uno”

                When I was a teenager I loved Green Day.   After I bought “Dookie”, I went and bought every other Green Day album that I could.   I saw them played an arena tour to support “Insomniac”, a poster for which I still have to this day, and I saw them play a club to support “Nimrod”.     Sometime after “Nimrod” though, I lost contact with Green Day and they started releasing a bunch of albums that I never listened to but probably should go back and hear one day.

                Then the phenomenon struck.   “American Idiot” was released and everyone was back on the Green Day bandwagon (including me).    Following that album though, I lost track of them for an album, which I should probably go back and listen to as well, but now I’m trying to catch back up with them.

                “Uno” is the first of four albums being released all within the same year by Green Day.   This album has the face of Billie Joe Armstrong on the cover.   The fourth album has some new guy on the cover.   Did you know Green Day added a fourth member?  Neither did I, until this album.   I mean, that strategy did work out for Kurt Cobain and Nirvana rather well, so hey, add more members… why not.

                In any event, this album begins and sounds a lot like “Nice Guys Finish Last”, which takes me back to “Nimrod” which is, you guessed it, where I left off with this band.   So it is like coming full circle for me in a lot of ways with Green Day because I wasn’t subject to the (lesser) releases in between “Nimrod” and now.  

                On the fifth song, we get into this Clash sounding punk, but yes, for the most part this really is the Green Day you remember, just not the Green Day that pre-dates “Nimrod”, so I don’t know how much of it is really what you remember because you might not have heard them since “Insomniac” or even “Dookie”.   And there’s no way this sounds anything like albums that preceded “Dookie”.

                Being the first of four, I’m willing to give the other three a shot as well.   I just want to know on this album why they hate DJs so much.   True, there are some really annoying DJs out there (whom I will refrain from naming) but some of my best friends and heroes are DJs as well, so what’s up with that, Green Day?   Leave the DJs alone and focus on finding that raw punk sound you once had before the studio punk sound took over.