NME analyzes ¡Dos! track-by-track and they're not overly impressed

By Matt · Oct. 30, 2012 · 0 Comments

¡Dos! album artwork

Here we go again. NME has gotten their hands on an early copy of ¡Dos! and they have reviewed it track-by-track. It being NME, I think you all can guess how this one plays out.

Overall, they're not too impressed with the album, and neither were they with ¡Uno!. Though, in their opinion, they believe ¡Dos! is better.

Before I dive into some specific tracks, here is NME's overall verdict of the album:

"We were underwhelmed by '¡Uno!', a record which confirmed that after a decade spent writing concept albums, Green Day could not simply flick a switch and go back to 1994. In spite of all its inconsistencies, however, '¡Dos!' is a far more satisfying proposition. For a year that seemed to promise so much, 2012 has turned into Green Day's annus horribilis: hopefully this represents the turning of the corner."

One track we haven't (knowingly) heard much about is "See You Tonight." It is apparently "a gentle, minute-long acoustic strum in mildly stalker-ish fashion." It is now safe to say this track is the one that appeared in the beginning of the band's tour update video from a couple months ago.

NME did say something positive about the track "Ashley:"

"Now this is bloody great, the sort of hepatitis-ridden thrash you'd expect to hear in an LA punk club in the early 80s, snarlingly melodic and played with a speed and ferocity which suggests digits may have been dislocated during its recording. That said, we wouldn't like to be on the receiving end of Armstrong's ire here: "You say that you're fine but I know that you ain't/You're looking like hell and you're no fucking saint." Charming."

One track I've been looking forward to quite a bit is "Lazy Bones." It is most certainly the track that was released in Angry Birds several weeks ago. Here is what NME had to say about it:

"'Lazy Bones' opens with Strokes-esque sparseness - just a staccato rhythm guitar and metronomic drums - before quickly morphing into something that resembles '¡Uno!''s more power-poppy moments. The song's not bad, but the real interest, inevitably, lies in psychoanalysing its lyrics, which find Billie Joe declaring that, "The silence is so deafening/ It's like picking at a sore/ I'm too mental to go crazy/ I'm too drunk to be pure". Hmm."

To read the full track-by-track review of the album, head on over to NME's site.