Whereas the kick-off to the world’s most infamous working pop impregnators of punk’s ballsy trilogy of “epic as fuck” albums had some Dookie meets American Idiot panache, ¡Dos! loses steam fast. Or rather, it is one collective steamer. Not harsh to be harsh here, but dude’s you’ve got a cheeeeesy RAWK track called “Fuck Time.” And it is so not so over-the-top it’s tasteful, as Bille Joe Armstrong attempted to save face with via a Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas analogy. Auto-pilot power chord after power chord marred by sadistic noir that’s neither clever or melodically near an “epic as fuck” tag. Why must every vocal be megaphone-if-fied! However, we still love you, Green Day, and it’s not a complete loss.  So go the songs and lyrics we think you should have just plopped on an EP, and proceeded to move on to ¡Tre!: 

‘Amy‘ 

One of two numbers reduced down to a hallowed out electric guitar shuffle and Billie Joe Armstrong intimacy, all the raunchy ambitions that come before “Amy” seem like a shitty night to the day-glow remembrances of this howling post-war-tone homage to Amy Winehouse, the twisted torture of the singer/songwriter biz back-boning a universal catharsis for the fading art of a 27 Club member taken too soon: [LISTEN]

Is your heart singing out of tune?
Are your eyes just singing the blues?
Dirty records from another time
Some blood stains on your shoes
May I have this last dance by chance if we should meet?

‘Stray Heart‘ 

Cutting the shock-rock fat on the second half of the record, Billie Joe archs a swing melody here to display an actually endearing tale of love that doesn’t include misogyny and a crunchy riff-rock spewing. Mike Dirnt’s bass line cruises. Tré does indeed play it shuffle cool, and things get a wee doo-wopy in a suiting plainspoken yearn that does a perfect job of masking its singular dimension: [LISTEN]

I’ve said it a thousand times
And now a thousand one
We’ll never part
I’ll never stray again from you
This dog is destined for a home to your heart

‘Lazy Bones‘ 

Again ditching the speed-box, crunchy bore of way too many tracks on ¡Dos!, “Lazy Bones” is a charming second generation companion piece repping the boredom that drove the bay-area trio to kick out the jams in the first place, when suburban life was so tepid masturbation even lost its fun. Except now their mind-numbing laziness is sullied in some deeper life happenings, and the guitar work gets refreshingly angular: [LISTEN]

I’m too tired to be bored
I’m too bored to be tired
And the silence is so deafening
It’s like picking at a sore

‘Wild One‘ 

The only instance where power-chords actually dress themselves right on ¡Dos!, where choke holds and blood saturated love balladry in distasteful ways earlier on, ‘Wild One’ soars in with a clever pen, an actual tolerable arena rocker dedicated to the veritable ‘wild one’, tapping the sweet realism of very fucked relationships, but being absolutely aright with that: [LISTEN]

Give up on Jesus, forever the Venus
All fucked up with nowhere to go
Keeping me cool
Jump on the planet
Open your mind to the world, hello

‘See You Tonight‘ 

The brethren of the aforementioned “Amy” with its planky/unplugged guitar tone and minute-long angst, if anything its deception in curtaining a concept record worth conceptualizing should get an award. And then “Fuck Time” comes in on its heels. Otherwise, its naked hope of catching a lover in the night, or maybe not, is a choice lead, complete with a pastoral pop proverb: [LISTEN]

Maybe your timing’s not right
I won’t be seeing you tonight
Maybe I’ll see you tonight
Maybe I’ll see you tonight