A Dos of Green Day

Green Day's musical trilogy (which began just a few weeks ago) continued last Tuesday with the release of ¡Dos! Listening to it the first time, I thought it was a distinctly weaker batch of songs than on ¡Uno! But I've continued to give the album a chance as it comes up in the shuffle, and I find the songs are growing on me.

The 38 total songs of the trilogy were recorded over the same period of time, and then arranged into these three albums for release. As a result, there are some threads that connect the first album to the second. Certain lyrical ideas repeat (such as "stop when the red lights flash," a phrase from the first album's lead single "Oh Love," becoming a song title here). The general approach here is the same -- to abandon the concept album approach of American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown, and instead try a broader variety of song styles.

I noted that ¡Uno! contained many songs that sound like they could have been recorded during different periods of Green Day's career. They try to do the same thing with ¡Dos!, but with more mixed results. Many of the songs don't just sound like "earlier Green Day," they sound like two specific earlier Green Day songs mashed together. "Lazy Bones" is the chord progression of American Idiot's "Give Me Novocaine" with a chorus eerily reminiscent of "Favorite Son." The aforementioned "Stop When the Red Lights Flash" lifts liberally from the medley songs off American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown.

While this self-recycling doesn't thrill me, other songs on the album represent more interesting experiments in trying to sound like other bands. These tracks are hit and miss, but they're definitely different. "Nightlife" is an odd slow jam with a female rapper taking all the verses. "Amy" is a solo guitar ballad (reportedly about the death of Amy Winehouse). And the hilariously overt "Fuck Time" is a fun foray into surf rock.

I would have called the album a C after listening to it the first time, but as I said, it's been worming its way into my brain. It's climbed up to a B-, as I focus more on the tracks I really do like (and ignore the rest). Perhaps I'll grow to like it even more, but I feel pretty confident in pronouncing this a weaker album than ¡Uno! Still, at the very least, there are songs worth cherry picking here.