The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Let it be known for the record I've always been a fan of Green Day. From 1,039 Slappy Hours to Kerplunk to Dookie to Insomniac to Nimrod to Warning , I found Green Day to be a fun punk alternative rock band I could casually listen to at a party, in the car, or while working out. With their releases of American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown in 2004 and 2009, respectively, however, I went from a casual fan to a die-hard fan of the band. Their music evolved both sonically and lyrically, and the band which once named an album after poop was now creating classic concept rock operas which would soon find their way on Broadway (at least in the former's case). Green Day then went to their old bag of tricks with Uno , Dos , and Tré , before releasing their latest album, Revolution Radio.  After listening to the new album several times now, I thought I'd review it track-by-track, and follow that up with some closing thoughts. 1) "Somewhere Now" (8/10): This song opens ...

I've seen (heard, I suppose is the more appropriate word) it many times, when a band enters a point in their career where they seemingly lose the identity they had which brought them an initial appeal to listeners. In some cases, bands are labeled as "matured," as they transition from a raw, less-produced, perhaps more emotional and personal-style of music to more cliched, overly produced, radio-friendly rock. Often times, I see the term "matured" as synonymous with "monotone," "repetitious" and "business over pleasure". Two bands that immediately come to mind for me are Linkin Park and Nine Inch Nails. The rap/rock hybrid of the early 2000s played into Linkin Park's hands and they tended to stand out on their own from the rest of the like-minded bands of the time. But, over the last 10 years and with each successive album, they've put much less emphasis on the rap and more on the singing, making them sound more like an ev...