I think, prior to the formal review, I should give a bit of my background with Green Day. I'm only 16, so I'm not one of those die-hard Dookie fans, I tend to gravitate towards their newer albums (i.e American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown). That being said, I can appreciate their older albums. I don't care for their first two albums, and honestly I don't really like Dookie, but I canI think, prior to the formal review, I should give a bit of my background with Green Day. I'm only 16, so I'm not one of those die-hard Dookie fans, I tend to gravitate towards their newer albums (i.e American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown). That being said, I can appreciate their older albums. I don't care for their first two albums, and honestly I don't really like Dookie, but I can at least appreciate it for the revolutionary album it is. Insomniac is an alright album in my opinion, and the same goes for Nimrod. Warning is, oddly enough, my favorite Green Day album, and American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown are just fantastic albums, any way you look at them. So, we come to Uno!, Dos!, and Tre!, three of the worst albums I've ever heard in my life. All bands have their black sheep albums (RHCP has One Hot Minute, Smashing Pumpkins has Zeitgeist, Coldplay has Mylo Xyloto, etc), but these albums are really, really, really terrible, even compared to some of the greatest band's worst efforts. I'm sort of lumping these together (the words I say apply not only to Tre!, but too to Uno! and Dos!), because these albums honestly are not worth my time and effort to write three individual reviews. With Green Day's career as makers of epic, lengthy, thematic, overtly-conceptual rock operas seemingly over, they decided to venture back into the catchy, three minute (most not even), three power-chord punk song territory. However, punk honestly isn't the right word; pop-punk, would be. Now, some may cry Judas and assume that my negativity is entirely based upon this change towards pop, but that isn't the case. One of the only redeemable songs on this trilogy, "Kill the DJ", is honestly one of the most dance-y, poppy songs Green Day has ever made, and they nail it perfectly. However, and this is me being as honest as humanly possible, that is the only good song on these albums. Green Day's attempts at a return to punk form (songs like "Nuclear Family", "Let Yourself Go", "Makeout Party", "Wow! That's Loud", "Sex, Drugs & Violence", and "99 Revolutions") all seem trite, and fall way short of such classic punk rockers like "Burnout", and "Stuck With Me". Now, it may be wrong to compare new music to old music, but these albums were marketed as a return to their punk roots, at which they fail. Now, I mentioned Green Day treads new territory, too, with the poppy sound. They perfect this style ever so articulately on the aptly titled "Kill the DJ", a song which i can honestly say I love. However later attempts at this feel shoe-horned in, and rather sell-out-y. The most prominent example of this would be "Nightlife" on Dos!, a song which, without Armstrong's signature bratty whine, could be mistaken for a song not, in fact, by Green Day, even featuring several rapping versus from guest artist Lady Cobra. Another example of this would be "Makeout Party", also on Dos!. With lyrics like "It's a makeout party on another dimension", one could assume that: 1. Armstrong never passed 9th grade English and Grammar, and 2. Armstrong wants to be an angst-y teen again. Speaking of lyrics, one of the worst lyrics I've ever heard in my life appears on the Tre! song "Sex, Drugs & Violence", when Armstrong proclaims "Sex, drugs and violence/ English, math and science!", a lyric which makes no sense, given Armstrong only briefly mentions this comparison of these primitive human feelings and desires (sex, drugs, and violence), to these primitive topics of study (English, math, and science) once in the entire song, excluding the chorus. The main problem on these albums is, in fact, singer and guitarist (now a dignified rhythm guitarist with inclusion of long-time touring guitarist Jason White as lead guitarist on this trilogy). The lyrics are terrible, and the songs that are so clearly written by Armstrong (the generic, trite, three power-chord songs with little variation) are as terrible as the lyrics. The only highlights of the album are the other musicians, with drummer Tre Cool giving some stellar drum trackings as per usual, bassist Mike Dirnt providing some ear-worm inducing bass-hooks, and guitarist Jason White providing some solos never heard on Green Day albums before (obviously because Armstrong did not posses the talent). However, it's not fair to place the whole of the blame on Armstrong, as the one lyrics sung by Dirnt on lead ("I don't want to be an imbecile, but Jesus made me that way" on "Sex, Drugs & violence") is just as terrible as Armstrong's worst lyric. Even more so, how would these other, clearly superior, musicians, allow this trilogy to be released and tarnish their otherwise fluke-less career? After seeing Billie Joe's on-stage, sleeping-pill-induced freak-out from two years back, one could formulate a theory on just how stable Billie Joe may be behind the scenes. All this in mind, Uno!, Dos!, and Tre! by Green Day are some of the worst albums ever. However, I'll give it a 1/10, just for "Kill the DJ".… Expand
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