I purchased the third album in Green Day’s trilogy, ¡Tré! a few weeks ago and since then I’ve listened to the songs 4-5 times each. The verdict: I wouldn’t go out of my way to skip any songs, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to listen to any particular song either. Overall, the album is pretty good. I found myself absently tapping my foot along to most of the songs, but none really grabbed me.

Since I don’t have any favourite songs, I will list my favourite sections of this album:

1. 99 Revolutions – the chorus, especially the one that drops all instruments but the drums at 2:30
2. 8th Avenue Serenade – the first 13 seconds
3. X-Kid – the first 35 seconds

Some of the lyrics are jarring for me. The following examples all stuck out during my commute when I was not paying any special attention to the lyrics:

1. The worst offender is “I lost my head, I even looked under the bed” from Missing You. Seriously? This sounds like it came straight out of a learn-to-read book from grade school.
2. Although the song Drama Queen is one of the more recognizable songs on the album, I’m not a fan of the line “Everyone’s drama queen is old enough to bleed now”. I don’t want to be offended by it, but I am.
3. And lastly the line “Like a lifelong daisy chain” in the song A Little Boy Named Train just seems out of place on a Green Day album. It conjures the image of a crown of delicate flowers instead of the more genre appropriate bleeding heart grenade from the cover of their earlier album American Idiot.

I should mention that the track The Forgotten was part of the Twilight movie soundtrack for Breaking Dawn Part 2. I find it kind of boring. I also want to add that that I’d like to hear Dirty Rotten Bastards in concert. This track has the spirit of an Irish drinking tune, but doesn’t quite hit the mark for me. It might work better with a crowd singing along.

I still like the first album in the trilogy best, but I rank ¡Tré! second place.

For my comments on the first two albums in the trilogy see this post.

I went to high school in the nineties so it should be no surprise that Green Day is one of my favourite bands. Back then, their albums were in that small pile of CD’s I could play without skipping any songs. My favourite Green Day album of all time is American Idiot. It is a masterpiece full of catchy and satisfying music.

I was nervous when I heard the band was releasing 3 albums in succession this year. It’s hard to get something like that right. I am reminded of The Smashing Pumpkins two disk album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Neither disk was in my play without skipping pile. There were actually quite a few great songs – at least 4, but overall I felt disappointed because that was only 4 out of 28 songs.

I was cautiously optimistic when I heard the first two singles off the album ¡Uno! and really liked them: “Oh Love” and “Kill the DJ”. I snatched up the album as soon as it came out. The final verdict: it’s not on the same level as American Idiot, but it is a good album. I can play it through without skipping songs. I even found a few more favourites: “Carpe Diem” and especially “Fell For You”.

When the next album ¡Dos! came out I figured it was a no-brainer. I bought it without having heard any of the songs. This time I was sorely disappointed. I don’t have any favourite songs off this album. In fact, I don’t think I really like any of them. Some songs actually bother me and the rest are bland, like they are missing a hook.

I am still looking forward to the third album that should be released soon. It looks like ¡Tré! will be the tie-breaker for me.