Tre

What a whirlwind this trilogy has been. Love it or hate it, ¡UNO! gave us a refined look back at the Warning/Nimrod era sound of Green Day, and ¡DOS! paid tribute to garage rock of the late 60's and 70's. Now we have ¡TRE! which feels like a progression forward; beyond the days of American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown.

The album kicks off with Brutal Love which heavily borrows from Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home to Me", and ends with the very Beatles-esque "The Forgotten" but the ten tracks in between those shows a major departure from the heavily rock music history influenced vibe of the two preceding albums. These other songs, other than the first and last track, sound like 100% new Green Day tunes. I was delighted to discover this because, while I've enjoyed the other two albums, this one actually feels like a progression forward as musicians and artists.

The song structure on all these tracks is very well assembled and mature. There is nothing sloppy about any of the tracks on this album. For once, Green Day sound like matured musicians who have perfected a signature sound. "X-Kid", a deep track about a friend of Billie Joe's who committed suicide, exemplifies this. You are drown in slowly with an intro of Billie's emotive lyrics, and then jump started to life with Mike and Tre's signature sound. BAM! It's a Green Day track, and you want to listen.

I can't compare this album to other Green Day albums, and I'm really happy about that. Maybe you could compare it to 21st Century Breakdown, minus the tension of some of the lyrics, and with a more polished sound. Take the six minute "Dirty Rotten Bastards" track as an example. This may just be the finest album Green Day has written in ten years. It is unbelievably catchy and has been stuck my head for days. The last time that happened to me with a Green Day song was in the 90's. Other tracks are excellent as well though. I honestly can't pick a favorite, and the album has naturally grown on me with repeat listens. Just like the Green Day albums did for me back in the day.

The whole experience of the trilogy has been great. I applaud Green Day for sticking their neck out and releasing this series when rock bands are not making any bold moves. They did it with American Idiot and they are doing it again by releasing three albums in one year. Who does that? Nobody else.

There is also no denying the quality of this music across all three records. It is impressive. Could they have released one super amazing album instead of these three? Yes, but I'm glad they didn't. If they had done that, they would be just another predictable mediocre washed up rock band. Green Day said in a recent interview that they "Want to grow old with their fans", and ¡Tre! shows us they are making a best effort to do just that.

It's not often that the best item in a trilogy comes last, but that is definitely the case with Tre! I have listened to Green Day for years now, and was so impressed with American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown that I planned on picking up these albums immediately upon release, something I rarely do.

Uno was decent, although it seemed to have a lot of filler around the good tunes.

Dos I listened to about 3 times and haven't wanted to go back. It definitely felt to me like they wrote a bunch of tunes and decided to sell them all instead of just putting the best ones down, and I figured the best had already happened on Uno.

If I thought so much less of Dos, I was worried just how bad I would think that Tre was. I wasn't going to order it until I read a few reviews here that said that it was surprisingly good, and I figured that it was worth picking up. I'm so glad that it did.

This is the Green Day that took a huge step up for me with the two albums I named above. It has a little of everything, and is the best sounding Green Day songs in a long time. Standout songs are X-Kid, 99 Revolutions, the Forgotten and Dirty Rotten Bastards. If Uno or Dos disappointed you, get this. And if you didn't get either of those, get this first and decide if you want the others. It's worth it!

I found Uno to be wildly uneven (hit: Nuclear Family, hit-self-in-face: Kill the DJ) and Dos really did nothing for me, so I almost didn't pick up Tre (given track titles of "Sex Drugs & Violence" and "Dirty Rotten Bastards"), but I'm glad I did. It isn't as hard or cutting or raw as Green Day's best work, but it's good throughout. While tracks 1, 5, and 9-12 are the strongest (X-Kid and Walk Away probably being my favorites of the bunch), the entire album feels like an album and doesn't have anything that is track-skippingly wretched on it. The lyrics are more mature and interesting, as are the musical arrangements. Also, have to point out that Dirty Rotten Bastards is written in the multi-part style of Jesus of Suburbia or Homecoming from American Idiot -- so if you're particularly keen on that style, there's one of them here.

Overall, I am quite pleased that the skills, quality, and taste that Green Day cultivated over the past decade haven't been lost in the creative chaos -- and this album shows it.