Green Day - UNO!

2012 is the seeing two of three new Green Day albums and that alone is exciting. What makes this even more exciting is that album number one UNO! is bloody brilliant! Did I make my point? Did you understand how freaking awesome UNO! is? The trio of misfits has written one of their best albums without needing to follow the American Idiot formula.

Too often do we get told by bands that this new album is like their classic album the one that made them and nearly every time that is such bullshit and they are lying out their ass's. Not with UNO! this is akin to Dookie, Insomniac and Warning. There are some absolutely killer tunes like "Let Yourself Go" that reminds me instantly of "Geek Stink Breath's" awesomeness or "American Idiot's" awesomeness because it has that sort of in your face lose your mind and just rock the hell out sound.

The album does have a couple of songs that aren't the best thing ever and well it's Green Day every album in their history had a couple of songs that were as good as the rest and it's a common occurrence with most albums by all artists. The weaker material comes in the form of "Carpe Diem" and "Kill The DJ" which just don't do it for me. "Kill The DJ" isn't a bad song far from it but I'm not a huge reggae fan and it's got a pseudo reggae beat. But quickly the band are back on track with "Fell For You" which sounds similar to something that would have been on Warning a solid album on its own so I'm sure most fans will automatically like it.

Green Day just seem so charged and full of energy on this album it's almost like they drank a magic soda made from their angst at eighteen years old but retained all the lessons they've learned from living life into their thirties. When needed the maturity of later day Green Day appears a little but never like on 21st Century Breakdown which is a very poor effort from such a consistent band.

The only people who will think this isn't a great record is the deaf hipsters who just hate everything that is mainstream and we all know someone like that. I've been accused of being on myself but I'm far from it. I just like good well crafted music that isn't derivative and boring. Sometimes cheesy pop music like Carly Rae Jepsen or Katy Perry is great to listen to and sing-a-long with and sometimes the depth of Pink Floyd or Soundgarden is needed to please my ears. This album is fun wholeheartedly entertaining and charismatic as hell.

I'm so impressed that I'm more excited for the next installment than I could have imagined. This album has rekindled my love of the best band the 90's produced. Sure Collective Soul, Soul Asylum and few others but Green Day has always been the one band from that schizophrenic decade that I adored and still do. UNO! is a not to be missed album and is a candidate for my favorite album of 2012 giving the brilliant Shinedown album a run for its money. Let's Rock! >presses play and starts the album all over again!