Well, here we are, nearly four years after the disaster that was Father of All M…, a thing that barely constituted an album, something that reeked of “contractual obligation.” Now the band have re-signed with Reprise, hooked back up with Rob Cavallo and taken a look back at their past to figure out where the future should go. “Dilemma” has already become one of the best singles the band has released in over fifteen years. An autobiographical track from Billie Joe, the song looks at the mistakes he’s made while being drunk. A powerful song and possibly one of the best GD songs ever.
“The American Dream Is Killing Me,” the album’s first single, is a strong kickoff and contains a chorus that will stick in your head for a while. I didn’t start off liking “Bobby Sox” but the more I listened, the more I was intrigued. As a queer anthem, if you wanna call it that, it’s serviceable but the vocals really take it over the top and “Look Ma, No Brains!” is a decent enough track and at two minutes easily digestible, especially after you’ve heard it in a Taco Bell commercial.
There’s still some stellar duds on this disc including “1981” and the lackluster ballad “Goodnight Adeline” which feels like an outtake from 21st Century Breakdown. For whatever reason, the album leans more toward the pop in pop-punk and this doesn’t work for a band of guys in their fifties. I want more Insomniac/Nimrod and less the 2012 trilogy.
This album is an improvement over FOAM, but then again anything would be better than that. The middle of this album is an absolute slog to get through and a chore to deal with. Maybe cutting three songs from the tracklist would have tightened things up, but god what a bore! Luckily, “Strange Days Are Here To Stay” picks things up a bit and allows the record to crest towards its ending while feeling like a modern Green Day record. “Father To A Son” is another ballad and at this point in their career, the ballads feel like a retread instead of new and fresh.
The closer, “Fancy Sauce,” at least the title, sounds like it’s from FOAM but it’s a slow burn that isn’t terrible. The album’s title track is decent enough of a rocker, but it doesn’t reach the heights of a “Dilemma.”
All in all, this is a middling record and as I see it, the band’s last good album outside of Revolution Radio is still American Idiot. I went into this record with high hopes and they were not met. A decent meh record; basically every GD record since 2004.
