New Album Review: Green Day – iTre!

Freddie Matthews writes from London: iTre! Is the final part of the Green Day 2012 trilogy of albums, namely the uninspiring iUno!, followed by the worst of the lot iDos! and now the equally poor final part iTre!.

I find it unbelievable that a band who, at the pinnacle of their career, understood the philosophy behind releasing an album when it’s the right time, normally around anywhere between 2 to 4 years, now thinks it’s OK to release 3 in the same year. The phrase ‘quit while you’re ahead’ springs to mind for most bands but Green Day obviously don’t think so.

At the height of their music career Green Day sold upwards of 16 million worldwide copies of their 1994 Dookie album. Then a whole decade later American Idiot sold over 14 million copies. They ‘really’ should know better than to release 3 mediocre albums in less than the space of one year.

This is an album of American bravado bollocks and at least the fans have supported this sentiment by not buying this trilogy as their combined sales are less than Green Day’s lowest ever selling album, which was funnily enough their last, 2009’s, 21^st Century Breakdown. Surely that should have told Green Day something. It’s time to wind things down, be remembered for the great and not the subsequent mistakes to follow.

If you must buy this album, and I strictly suggest you don’t, then here are some of the tracks you’ll get on iTre!: Track 1-Brutal Love has no musical brutality whatsoever. It’s Green Day in their comfortable slippers, multi-million dollar mansions and smoking their pipes (boring). One of the better songs on this album is 8^th Avenue Serenade. At least it sounds like Green Day should and that there is a bit of the old band still in the song; X-Kid, but with its coupling of the lyrics from ‘Walk Away’ pretty much shows a real lack of inspiration and effort for a band who’ve held a common place for the last 20 odd years. They’ve run out of ideas and are struggling to even compose 1 song let alone a decent album’s worth. How apt then that a song called Forgotten is the final song on this album. If this is the last song on a Green Day album for a long time to come, then to go out on a ballad is a very mature but a ‘totally’ ridiculous decision for a band who have thrived on punk rock for so long. It’s stale, lacks any inspiration and despite the perfect production by Rob Cavallo, on this and the whole album, shows the dearth of  new ideas and talent from the band who have long grown out of favour.

Green Day have lost their immediacy. The want and the need have gone, as has the carving of a whole new musical generation. If you were into the band from the early days, then like Billy Joe, Mike and Tre you’ll also be in your 40s, which certainly won’t be helping their cause!

Green Day either need to call it a day or explore a whole new musical direction because we’re sick of their same old shite. It’s boring and far too predictable. I would rather remember them for songs like Basket Case, Minority, American Idiot and Wake Me Up When September Comes and not the drivel they’ve produced in the last few years.

iTre! is a disappointment from start to finish. Green Day should forget about the new albums and take at least 10 years off. A hiatus for a band like this will only secure their longevity. That’s my advice anyway.

2/10

–End–

1 Comment

1. 1Sausage says:

   January 3, 2013 at 8:42 am

   Is it the end of an era? BIG shame. I saw them live a few years ago at the Milton Keynes Bowl and they were quite literally amazing. Dookie was by far their best album. I suppose we’re all getting older and there’s nothing we can do about it.