muster a fittingly caustic tribute to the uniquely American mass shooting phenomenon. ( 21st Century Breakdown, the exception, arrived six months after Obama’s election.) On “Bang Bang,” Armstrong and co. It’s a fitting coincidence that since 2000 the band only seems to put out records during presidential elections.
Politically charged rock has been Green Day’s default mode ever since masturbation lost its fun.
ORDINARY WORLD CHORDS GREEN DAY FULL
Revolution Radio, true to title, is full of unrest and sociopolitical despair. In between, there is not a lot of peace but plenty of sharp hooks. (The latter cut bears the folksy stamp of Armstrong’s 2013 Everly Brothers tribute, which in retrospect sounds more therapeutic than creatively invigorating.) “If this is what you call the good life,” Armstrong declares on “Forever Now” (which reprises the opener), “I want a better way to die.” The singer has described the album as “not so much a makeover as a make under.” On the disillusioned opener, “Somewhere Now,” and the sweetly strummed closer, “Ordinary World,” Green Day seek peace after several years of turmoil. It is 44 minutes in length (longer than Dookie, yes, but pretty brief for a band that has made excess something of a priority in recent years) and doesn’t have any overarching concept or gimmick. Revolution Radio, Green Day’s 12th album and first since 2012, was self-produced by the band in Armstrong’s studio in Oakland. Now, the legacy pop-punk trio has added another cliché to its repertoire: the back-to-basics album. (Don’t believe me? Queue up “Basket Case” at a karaoke party.)
Thankfully, the band’s back catalog is strong enough to withstand bumps and missteps. There was even that 2012 onstage meltdown, which involved an obligatory dig at Justin Bieber and a subsequent stint in rehab for Billie Joe Armstrong. It makes sense, considering the band has lived virtually every classic-rock cliché there is by this point: the sappy ballad-turned-high school prom classic the bombastic, career-reviving rock opera whose plot you can scarcely decipher the protest-rock phase the even longer, second rock opera the releasing- too -many -albums trick borrowed Guns N’ Roses. Usually just the hits from Dookie, though occasionally you might catch “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” or something from Insomniac. Green Day gets played regularly on classic-rock stations in 2016.
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