Sunday Series – Green Day: UDT! – Track 6

I took last week off to write about Warning. You can read that right……here.

We’re on track 6 on our quest to find the perfect track-listing from the latest Green Day album trilogy. Which means we’re wrestling with Fell For You found on Uno, Dos’s Makeout Party that follows the album’s incessant ability to cause screw-faces among long-time fans, and Tre’s incredibly fun Sex, Drugs & Violence. It’s funny; when I took it upon myself to take this challenge, I honestly thought it’d be easier than it seems to be. Sure, there are obvious winners here and there, but the real problem lies with trying to determine if these songs are designed to please the 35 year old men who still attend shows and hope and pray for Dookie and nothing else, or to the new-wave of fans that latched on to the bands success with American Idiot. 

Track 6 – Uno – Fell For You

Hot off the heels from Kill The DJ, this feels like a refreshing change if you’re giving Uno a spin. It’s not easy to ignore lyrics like “first I thought that I’d pissed the bed” but it’s certainly not terrible in the grand scheme of things. It’s a fairly family-friendly affair once you’re past the piss, and it’s not a bad listen. The premise might be slightly overcooked, having dreams about a girl, and it’s pretty weird hearing Billie Joe singing so explicitly about ‘love’, the same feeling you get when you listen to When It’s Time, or Last Night on Earth. This isn’t really a ‘love’ song by comparison, but it’s bordering on that camp, but given a ‘pissy whiskey’ edge that kind of saves it. It’s not groundbreaking, but in all honesty, I’ve given up hoping for groundbreaking material in these CD’s. Nothing really bad here. It’s the classic Green Day formula; verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, instrumental, slightly modified chorus. That’s ok with me.

Track 6 – Dos – Makeout Party

The main criticism that Dos has suffered is its immaturity. While the band claim that, in essence, it’s a second Foxboro Hot Tubs album, I feel that’s not enough to salvage some of the horrible tracks that’d we’ve endured so far. Makeout Party is a watered down It’s Fuck Time. It’s Billie Joe (or the albums protagonist, we’ll never know…maybe St. Jimmy came back) trying to be young again. I’ve said it before; hearing a 40-something even sing the words “baby baby it’s fuck time” or sing a song titled Makeout Party, is both stressful and difficult. There’s not really much going on in this song, to be honest. The FHT sound is actually there to be fair to the band. It’s not the most offensively awful song on this album, but it doesn’t do Dos any favours.

Track 6 – Tre – Sex, Drugs & Violence

…NOT a continuation of Blood, Sex & Booze. 

Don’t read that as a bad thing. This track is fast, something Tre has been missing. With something of a nonsensical chorus and some throwaway verses, it’s not as bad as it sounds. What Green Day have always attempted to do is make sure there’s fun injected into their albums, and this is no exception. Sex, Drugs & Violence holds itself as a pop-punk anthem for the masses that fits the Green Day stereotype. Probably the catchiest track on the album behind X-Kid, you’ll find yourself singing this song and coming back to it time and time again when you’ve got this CD in your car. Probably the best vocal performance so far on the trilogy.

Track 6 – The Verdict

Not exactly a mid-album black hole like previous weeks, but not the strongest. Three different tracks that lead to different results; you’ve got the ‘I’ve been dreaming of you’ vibe of Uno, Dos‘s ‘older-man-gone-omgwtf’ weirdness and the light hearted antics of Tre this week. Dos is going to have to wait yet another week to get a look in (with it’s best chance coming up in week 7). I’m going to go with my head here and go with what I thought was the strongest Green Day song here; I’m going to go with Tre’s addition.

Come back next week when Dos actually might have a case for a win.

Coming soon on Sans Sheriff: We drop the bass, and get into serious treble

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Cheeky Twitter follow? Sure! @SansSheriffM

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