Review - Green Day

Nate McKenzie listened to the Father of All... album, released yesterday by Geen Day...



For an all-time great band like Green Day, creating a new sound can be dangerous. The risk is: alienate hardcore fans who have expectations to a certain degree or remain stagnant and fail to attract casual music fans who may not have listened to much of their work since Jesus of Suburbia. Come across as trying too hard, reeking of desperation, or find a new voice that doesn’t resonate with lifelong followers but is gobbled up by a younger generation of punks and misanthropes.



Somehow, Green Day does all of these things, good and bad, with Father of All…



Initially, I felt something similar when I first listened to Fall Out Boy’s Save Rock & Roll. Then I remembered that, after a few listens of that album, I began to understand the greatness of their self-reinvention efforts; as I got deeper into Father of All…, it started to hit differently. They aren’t Weezer, begging to be remembered with bland, SoCal beach pop disguised as hard hitting rock, Green Day effectively brandishes a new style and sound while retaining their signature grit and punk roots. With various sounds throughout the album’s ten tracks, compiling a minuscule 26 minutes of run-time, Green Day is diversifying and as relevant as ever. I am comfortable putting Father of All… just behind Dookie and American Idiot as easily the third-best album in their catalogue.



Father of All… is everything that Revolution Radio tried, but failed, to be. It blazes through your ears with a swiftness and batters your senses with rubber nightsticks like a SWAT team at a riot and will be on heavy rotation on playlists over the next few years. Expect some Grammy consideration for this one.

Image - Amazon