Green Day’s ambitions extend far beyond its abilities. “American Idiot” strove to become a definitive chronicle of life in the United States in the early 21st-century, yet largely succeeded in conveying only adolescent boredom and ignorance. The band’s eighth album, “21st Century Breakdown,” sought to become a major aesthetic achievement, but only succeeded in rendering Green Day’s stylistic limitations painfully manifest. Now “¡Uno!” the first entry in a forthcoming album trilogy and the band’s ninth album, proclaims its affinities with the Beach Boys, Ramones and Nirvana, despite being entirely devoid of the anxious curiosity, endearing disenchantment and emotional evasiveness of those artists, suggesting that Green Day is closer to Blink-182 than any of those groups.
However, one must admit “¡Uno!” is a terrible record only in comparison to the heights to which it aspires. While it possesses little substance, the record’s commercial viability is indisputable. The music, though hardly mesmerizing, is somewhat enticing. The chord progressions are not novel, but they engage the listener’s attention, and the distortion is never more than slightly cacophonous.
Billie Joe Armstrong uses rankling screaming and plaintive moaning as each song demands it. Mike Dirnt’s bass is distracting on “Nuclear Family” and “Kill the DJ,” but otherwise he fulfills his duties admirably. Tre Cool’s impassioned yet restrained drumming consistently ensnares the listener. “Kill the DJ” and “Oh Love” are infectious, if tedious. Both could easily grace the Top 40 over the next several months. Every other track on this album should probably have been cut, but together they constitute a marginally satisfying listening experience.
More troubling, “¡Uno!” is also repugnantly crass. While free of the anemic social commentary that pervades “American Idiot” and “21st Century Breakdown,” it abounds with astonishing puerility. “¡Uno!” will almost certainly appeal to adolescents, but adults will cringe at the childish hedonism it so ardently celebrates and the worldview that it evokes in which women are little more than sex objects.
Armstrong seeks to express anxiety with his lyrics, but ultimately can only convey his own immaturity. Such petulance could be justified on an album like “Dookie” from Green Day’s younger years, but it scarcely merits attention or sympathy when delivered by a 40-year-old man.
Yet, “Dookie” is paradoxically a rather more mature record than “¡Uno!” The former addresses the same frustrations that crop up throughout the latter, but the Armstrong of “Dookie” recognizes his banality and is disenchanted by it. The Armstrong of “¡Uno!” takes himself far too seriously, and in the process, comes off as far more ridiculous.
A version of this article appeared in the Tuesday, Sept. 25 print edition. Chris Feldsine is a contributing writer. Email him at [email protected].