The Oakland trio have returned, armed with their 13th studio album Father of All… At just over 26 minutes long, it’s their shortest album to date, and marks the end of their contract with Reprise, who they’ve been signed to since their breakthrough album Dookie in 1994.
The opening tracks Father of All…, Fire, Ready, Aim and Oh Yeah fit firmly into the pop category with catchy melodies. Meet Me on the Roof is a feel good track with sing along adlibs, I Was a Teenage Teenager reflects on the feeling of youthful inadequacy. Billie Joe Armstrong (who needs no introduction, but for the novices, guitar/vocals/lyrics/general mayhem) stated in an interview that he wanted the album to sound like “old time rock ‘n roll”, which is true for shouty Stab You in the Heart. If it sounds familiar, like a certain suit clad quartet, there’s a reason for this: it’s a remake of You Broke My Heart, a song penned by Billie Joe for a Beatles-inspired musical called These Paper Bullets. Sugar Youth is fast paced and the most typical Green Day track on the album, which almost sounds like something they forgot to include on 1997’s Nimrod. Junkies on a High takes a different direction with a slower pace and is one of the album’s more interesting songs.
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