After 2020’s Father of All Motherfuckers bucked expectations to impressive effect by ditching the politics and most of their punk trappings for more of a garage-rock style, Green Day’s 14th album finds them reverting to type. From the opening The American Dream Is Killing Me in, there’s a sense of weary resignation, the lyrics frequently painting a bleak portrait of contemporary US life, from “People on the street/ Unemployed and obsolete” to “Grandma’s on the fentanyl now”. Although given that frontman Billie Joe Armstrong has had four years in which to write these words, you can’t help but feel that there is room for improvement in lines such as “All the madmen going mental” and “She is a cold war in my head and I am East Berlin”.
With co-producer Rob Cavallo on board, who previously contributed to the successful albums Dookie (1994) and American Idiot (2004), it’s not unexpected that there are similarities to those records. However, while tracks like 1981 and Suzie Chapstick bring back a sense of nostalgia, a significant number of the songs lack energy and creativity, resulting in a lack of noteworthy material.
Source: theguardian.com
