Uno!

Rolling Stone (p.69) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "12 blasts of hook-savvy mosh-pit pop, cut hot and simple with no operatic agenda..." Q (Magazine) (p.92) - "On 'Sweet 16,' Billie Joe Armstrong eloquently serenades his long-time love..." Mojo (Publisher) (p.82) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A]n unusually welcome exercise in dumbing back down. Here, you'll find F-words galore, chugging, Clash-like guitar onslaughts, a song about a high school reunion and not a single nugget of social commentary." Paste (magazine) - "[A] whiplash return to the band's reckless, hook-a-minute roots -- with power-pop studio sheen..."

Green Day's new millennium elevation to Very Important Band is so complete that when they decided to return to their frivolous punk roots they couldn't do it in a small way. They started to knock out a bunch of garage punk tunes and wound up with not one but three collections of punk-pop: a trilogy entitled !Uno!, !Dos!, !Tre!, each released within a couple months of one another. For as many passing references to the Clash as there are on !Uno! -- musical and lyrical, with the opening "Nuclear Family" alluding to the riff of "Safe European Home" and "Rusty James" talking about the "last gang in town" -- this is no Sandinista!, as it finds Green Day shrinking their world, not expanding it. This is all power pop and three-chord rockers, the tempo insistent and the hooks spiky and sharp; the only time things let up is at the end with "Oh Love," an arena filler so indebted to the Who that Billie Joe Armstrong winds up referencing "Love Reign O'er Me." Even then, the sound is big, crisp, and clean, as it is throughout !Uno!, and that clarity undercuts some of the punkiness of Green Day's intentions. Compared to their busman's holiday Foxboro Hot Tubs, !Uno! seems well-pressed and tidy, every note and every rhythm in its right place, and while that inspired recklessness is missed, this brisk, cheerful collection of pop is a relief after the operatic ambitions of 21st Century Breakdown. The hooks fly furiously, the attack is precise -- so precise that the mock dance-rock of "Kill the DJ" almost plays like a Xerox of Franz Ferdinand (it also is the one explicitly political song here, as if the trio members wanted to hide their intentions) -- and the hooks, in both the melodies and riffs, are so huge, they gleefully bludgeon doubters into blissful submission. It's the work not of punks but of road warriors eager to have a new batch of crowd-pleasers out on tour. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

グラミーの〈最優秀ロック・アルバム賞〉を獲得したコンセプチュアルな前作から3年ぶりとなるニュー・アルバムだ。シンプルなパンク・ロック回帰を目論む3部作の第1弾とのことで、ここでは94年作『Dookie』の頃のような勢いを取り戻している。ディスコ・ビートがクラッシュを連想させる“Kill The DJ”など、随所で先達にオマージュを捧げているのも特徴的。こういう作品を待っていたファンも多いのでは?
bounce (C)山口智男