Green DayOne fucking minute. That's all it takes when pressing play on Green Day's ninth studio album, ¡UNO!, to figure out they've somewhat returned to their former glory. 2009's 21st Century Breakdown was a write-off, and while 2004's American Idiot was a pretty decent album, the transformation the band embarked on because of it tainted their catchy hooks. ¡UNO!, the first record in a trilogy, takes off where 2000's Warning ended, and is a sound for sore ears.
Shortly after the album's release, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong was admitted to a rehab facility after an on-stage breakdown at the iHeartRadio music festival in Las Vegas. If substance abuse gave birth to this awesome album, maybe Armstrong should keep on livin' that rockstar lifestyle. That may be a selfish point of view, but 21st Century Breakdown was beyond awful. Maybe he was celebrating the band's first decent album in ten years.
The closest thing to 21st Century Breakdown on ¡UNO! is Kill The DJ, the first single taken from record. It doesn't do any justice to the 11 tunes that it sits alongside. A more fitting lead single would have been Stay The Night; it encompasses the right blend of the band's old sound without coming across like a boring, re-done knock off. Many fans had given up hope on these guys, but ¡UNO! is the light at the end of the Green Day rock opera tunnel. With any luck ¡DOS! and ¡TRE! will continue this trend and see the years between Warning and 21st Century Breakdown fade into a distant memory.
