American punk rock band Green Day hasn’t put out an album of original work since 2012. Lead singer and main songwriter Billie Joe Armstrong told Q Magazine the band needed the break to refocus their music—something that had become a bit of a mess since 2009’s 21st Century Breakdown.
Their past three records—a trilogy of albums—were more hit-or-miss, trying to recapture the generation-defining magic of 2004’s American Idiot and 1994’s Dookie. Both of those albums were socially relevant and groundbreaking, establishing the band as punk rock icons and politically-motivated musicians.
But trying to recreate the music that made them great ended up making them mediocre—instead of reflecting the world around them, they were simply trying to make statements for the sake of making statements.
Revolution Radio, Green Day’s twelfth studio album, takes the band back to its political rock roots. Topics explored on the album include mass shootings, addiction, and fears about a potential Trump presidency, and the album pulls Green Day back into mainstream relevance.
The lead single, “Bang Bang,” sets the tone for the rest of the album. Its powerful lyrics tell the story of a mass shooter: “I want to be a celebrity martyr/The leading man in my own private drama . . . Daddy’s little psycho and Mommy’s little soldier.” It’s an aggressive song—much more intense than anything Green Day’s put out before—but it’s cutthroat and inflicts its message like a sucker punch to the gut.
The entire album is much of the same. With two particularly intense tracks, “Somewhere Now” and “Too Dumb to Die,” Armstrong sings about living and dreaming from a more grown-up perspective than he has in Green Day’s past work. He’s “all grown up and medicated,” “too scared to dream, but too dumb to die.”
[vsw id=”wvu2-xQUNQI” source=”youtube” width=”600″ height=”400″ autoplay=”no”]Another standout track is “Forever Now.” Whenever Armstrong rages and rants, you want to rage and rant along with him. But that’s never been more true than it is in this song. He sings about his addiction struggles and fear over an increasingly dystopian future: “If this is what you call the good life, I want a better way to die.” Even if you aren’t engaged in the current American election cycle, chances are you’ve felt this way at least once before. I know I have.
There’s no consistent sound to the album, and that’s mostly a good thing. It’s easier to focus on the lyrics and message and grabs your attention. Tré Cool and Mike Dirnt deliver each track with cymbal-crashing drums and siren-sounding guitar, respectively. Most songs sound like the band’s trying to light the world on fire and start a riot—but with more passionate wisdom than their earlier music.
Revolution Radio is nothing groundbreaking, but it’s their most solid and consistent work since 2009, and that’s an achievement in and of itself. Any Green Day fan will love it, and anyone into political rock should definitely give it a listen.
