¡UNO! Album

[GreenCard Yellow Day]

I love how I did a review and now everyone else is too

[haveUgotAny]

The more i listen to Uno! the more i feel like Hearts Collide should have been the closing track...

[StuckWithInsomnia]

Nuclear Family 4.5/5: Extremely catchy, great riff, great bass line, great lyrics, just feels the chorus just feels like its holding back some emotion. I feel like the song isn't hard enough.

Stay The Night: 4.5/5 The intro starts slow and, I don't know what the word is, but in piano talk its kind of like "Staccato" or something, its builds up some speed and gets going, its very catchy and has a great chorus, its really nice riff but you don't get to hear it at normal speed enough only at the start when it is slow.

Carpe Diem: 2.5/5 Pretty nice riff, the lyrics however are kind of boring and cliched. Its kind of catchy but its not great. The only bit I like is "Making a living, making a killing" and the bit after that.

Let Yourself Go: 2.5/5 Opening riff isn't bad to headbang to, the first verse kicks in and the lyrics are good, however they are a bit annoying, then the chorus comes in and its extremely repetitive and annoying, then comes this screamy "Gotta let it go" which is pretty good, the second verse is better than the first, but its not great. Towards the end of it you hear this "SHUT THE FUCK UP" in the background which I really liked. The song is fast, a little bit catchy, repetitive, a bit annoying and a bit funny as well and it has some great energy.

Kill The DJ: 3.5/5 This great opening riff kicks in which is kind of ruined by this annoying "Oooooh" then this dark catchy verse kicks in about walking around New York at night. The chorus comes and its very catchy, however by the third chorus it gets a bit annoying. The bit after the chorus is one of the best parts, like Carpe Diem. Then we get to hear that great riff again and the second verse which is pretty similar to first one, after the second chorus theres that great riff again with a few other guitar parts, then pretty much just chorus again twice, which by the point is quite annoying.

Fell For You: 3/5 Good lyrics, very catchy, the chorus is a bit boring however. Especially the "crash into you" part then we get this very annoying "Too" sung similar to Paper Lanterns.

Loss Of Control: 3/5 One of the catchiest songs on the album, Uno is especially catchy compared to other albums. The lyrics are nothing special but the guitar is very nice.

Troublemaker: 4/5 Very funky beat (Yeah I said funky) and catchy, the lyrics are quite catchy and funny as well. The chorus is very boring however but the solo is very nice.

Angel Blue: 4.5/ Very catchy, great riff, good lyrics, catchy chorus.

Sweet 16: 3.5/5 Really catchy and kind of calming. Good riff, good lyrics, the only part I kind of don't like is the line about it being a Sweet 16.

Rusty James: 5/5 Best song on the album, great lyrics, good guitar, very catchy as well. Only part I don't understand is "And all the losers, can you even win for losing?" What does that mean?

Oh Love: 2.5/5 Boring and long, quite uninteresting, the Converse live version is much better, the solo is pretty good though.

Stray Heart: 4/5 Bassline very similar to "Are you gonna be my girl?" great chorus however.

Lady Cobra: 4.5/5 Fast and catchy as fuck.

SWTRLF: 3.5/5 Good start, bit boring in the middle though.

[American_edot]

Rusty James: 5/5 Best song on the album, great lyrics, good guitar, very catchy as well. Only part I don't understand is "And all the losers, can you even win for losing?" What does that mean?

i think it means that they lost there friends but won as they made it big time or something like that it could also be about the republican party stopping all the bills from going though congress as they dont like the democrats and will do anything to make Obama look bad even if it would be good for them

PS i'm English so sorry if i got anything about the politics wrong

[localinsomniac]

Rusty James: 5/5 Best song on the album, great lyrics, good guitar, very catchy as well. Only part I don't understand is "And all the losers, can you even win for losing?" What does that mean?

This whole song is kind of a "sequel" to 86. In that line, "And all the losers can't even win for losing," I think Billie's telling his antagonists that they never wanted to leave the Berkeley/Gilman scene. They got what they wanted, so they should be happy. But instead they're crapping all over the band that ended up being commercially successful.

Then the next line, "And the beginners don't even know what song they're singing." I love that. What it sounds like is there's a whole new wave of punks in that scene, and they hate on Green Day recreationally. They do it because it's the cool thing to do, ironically; because their elders in the scene did it.

[Nzap]

Now that Dos! is coming out soon I think it's time for my short review of Uno!

Here's the scale I will use for my review: 1-10 (with it being 1, 1.5, 2.0 etc.)

9.5-10: Songs that are in my favorite all-time Green Day songs. Usually there are about 2-5 songs on every album that are this good.

8.5-9: Songs that are awesome, but not really up there in the all-time favorites.

7.5-8: Songs that are very listenable, but lack a certain punch. These are songs I can listen to if they come up in a playlist, but I rarely choose to listen to these songs by themselves.

6.5-7: Songs that I sometimes skip when they come up. They are not necessarily bad, but really lack that factor which makes a song great.

<6.5: Songs that are downright bad and doesn't bring anything extra to the album.

1. Nuclear Family: 9.5

The opener. Green Day packs up huge energy and clever lyrics to make a song that pretty much has it all. The ending might be a tad too long, but otherwise a great opener to an album.

2. Stay the Night: 9.0

Stay the Night is really a fun song and what it lacks in the energy, it makes up for in the ending which is one of the best of the album along with Angel Blue. The song is a bit sluggish which takes it out of the best category.

3. Carpe Diem: 8.0

Carpe Diem is a song that is hard to categorize, because it can vary from day to day if I have it in the 2nd highest, or 3rd highest category. There is nothing really special about this song, but it is a good listen and an enjoyable song.

4. Let Yourself Go: 10

The best song on the album! This songs packs so much energy into a short song. The lyrics are very good and enjoyable, and the "gotta let it go" part is amazing. There is nothing to complain about this song. How this wasn't the 1st single (Nuclear Family, Stay the Night, Angel Blue also in there) we'll never know.

5. Kill the DJ: 7.0

Well, well. I really enjoyed this song the 1st time I listened to it, but this song becomes really repetitive and boring if you listen to it too much. It is a very "not Green Day-like" song in the sense that it doesn't mature and become better with age. Still it is enjoyable and fun as long as you listen to it quite rarely.

6. Fell For You: 7.5

A tweener. It really seems like a fill-in both musically and lyrically. Fortunately though, it still is good enough and doesn't become frustrating with time like some other songs.

7. Loss of Control: 7.0

I have a very hard time evaluating this song. I like the energy, but I hate the music in this one. It just doesn't fit together at all and it becomes a mess. The energy of the song and the good lyrics takes it up from the bad-level up to here.

8. Troublemaker : 9.0

Probably the most controversial (musically) song of the album. Theoretically it really doesn't fit in this album, which funnily enough makes it actually fit in. The lyrics are good (a bit lacking in the 2nd verse) but "fun" is the most appropriate word I find for this song. I always smile while listening to this song and I want to listen to it again, which is a good enough sign for me that this song is golden.

9. Angel Blue: 9.5

Angel Blue. A song which was one of my least favorites in the 1st listen. But it really packs in some amazing lyrics with an amazing melody. The ending of the song is as good as the ending in "Stay the Night". This is exactly the kind of song I like to listen to from Green Day. It really (almost) has it all.

10. Sweet 16: 8.5

My favorite calmer song of the album. The lyrics are probably the 2nd best of the album (behind LYG) and the song is really sweet with a great melody. Still, it lacks that something that makes me want to listen to it again and again. A very solid song.

11. Rusty James: 5.5

By far the worst song of the album. The only good thing about this song are its lyrics. The rest is absolutely horrible. There isn't any energy in the song and it drags on and on without any sense of direction. It is also very repetitive and about 1 minute too long. This was a song I was looking forward to hearing and it really disappointed me.

12. Oh Love: 8.5

Another one of these songs which have grown on me quite a lot since I heard it for the 1st time. It is actually a very good song which just drags on a bit too long.

I really like the lyrics here (although they are hard to make sense of) and it is an appropriate closer to the album.

There we have it.

Album Score (song by song): 99/12= 8.25

Album Score (entirety) : 8.5 ( which funnily enough = median)

[Homero]

I think you are the first person I see that really doesn't like Rusty James It's ok though, I'm not saying you should like it.

I like Rusty James because it's very simple and reminds me of Nimrod.

[WhiteTim]

I think you are the first person I see that really doesn't like Rusty James It's ok though, I'm not saying you should like it.

I like Rusty James because it's very simple and reminds me of Nimrod.

I didnt like it at all at first but now i dig it still not my fav but it's good it waa a grower

[Cob]

I like Rusty James because of Billie's passion in the singing, the harmonies, and the lyrics. You can really hear their pain about being cast out of the East Bay punk scene, and even though they're having the last laugh, they're still not happy because now they see how everyone's abandoned what they grew up fighting for, and the youth don't necessarily understand it all.

The song is bitter, but it's not outright angry bitter like "Stuart and the Ave." It reminds me of GD's live performance of "86" where Billie Joe gets super into the meaning of the song and sings "don't even cry" before the instrumental bridge.

For this reason, I think Rusty James is one of the best songs on the album. Not better than "Stay the Night", but it's definitely up there.

[Homero]

I like Rusty James because of Billie's passion in the singing, the harmonies, and the lyrics. You can really hear their pain about being cast out of the East Bay punk scene, and even though they're having the last laugh, they're still not happy because now they see how everyone's abandoned what they grew up fighting for, and the youth don't necessarily understand it all.

The song is bitter, but it's not outright angry bitter like "Stuart and the Ave." It reminds me of GD's live performance of "86" where Billie Joe gets super into the meaning of the song and sings "don't even cry" before the instrumental bridge.

For this reason, I think Rusty James is one of the best songs on the album. Not better than "Stay the Night", but it's definitely up there.

Are you talking about the "Letterman" performance? I love that. One of my favourites.

[Cob]

Are you talking about the "Letterman" performance? I love that. One of my favourites.

Of course. I absolutely love that performance.

[Nzap]

I didnt like it at all at first but now i dig it still not my fav but it's good it waa a grower

For me it was quite the opposite.

I think that Rusty James and Kill the DJ are the 2 songs that are getting worse with time.

Kill the DJ has that "new" factor in it, but it becomes quite repetitive and sluggish and quite annoying if you listen to it too much. That's why I try to listen to it quite rarely so that it is fresh enough every time I listen to it.

Rusty James for a lack of a better word "blinded" me in the beginning cause I had so high hopes for it. I thought it was OK, but as time went by I began feeling bored and uninterested while listening to it (completely opposite from Oh Love). (response to you and others end here. What follows is just additional stuff)

With some songs you begin to see/hear these small nuances and parts that you didn't hear before. With Rusty James there were none. For me at least, the 1st listen was the best listen for that song. I don't think there has been another song from Green Day with that effect (KtDJ was close though, but it hasn't plummeted this bad). Sure, I will still listen to it from time to time and it might yet grow on me, but for now at least it is my least favorite song that the band has produced in 15 years alongside with LNOE (songs on actual albums).

[The Grohl]

I like Rusty James, but I think it's a little overrated. I prefer Angel Blue myself.

[Alan86]

This album is fuckin brilliant. I hadn't listened to it for a few days and I just put on nuclear Family and had to listen to the full album all the way through

I'm so ready for the sequel

[tdlyon]

Posted this a while ago, but since lots of people are doing it now I thought I'd post it again near all the other ones.

Nuclear Family- 4/5. One of my favorites on the album. I can't seem to listen to another song without also getting the urge to listen to this one.

Stay the Night- 5/5. Probably tied for the best. Sure to go down in Green Day's history as one of their best songs ever.

Carpe Diem-3/5. Extremely catchy chorus, but the verses are a bit meh.

Let Yourself Go-4/5. Definitely gonna be a live favorite. Instantly memorable song, with one of the most catchy choruses they've ever made. I love the part where BJ screams, too.

Kill the DJ- 4/5. Very different, but really cool. Great guitar, and a very catchy chorus. I especially love the "We are the vultures" part.

Fell for You- 3/5. Not really one of my favorites. Just kinda...there.

Loss of Control- 4/5. Very old-GD sounding, but the lyrics in the chorus are kinda weak.

Troublemaker- 2/5. My least favorite. The verses are kinda annoying, and the chorus is really weak. Cool guitar solo though.

Angel Blue- 4/5. Could be on Kerplunk. Very fast paced and awesome, and the chorus is insanely catchy.

Sweet 16- 4/5. Another great one. I really love the chorus, and BJ's vocals are awesome.

Rusty James- 5/5. Tied for best. Awesome lyrics, incredibly catchy, awesome message. Just awesome.

Oh Love- 4/5. I don't hate this song like everyone else does. Really catchy chorus, and a cool solo. Also, it's even better as an album closer.

I used the word catchy a LOT in this, so I guess that's the best way to describe this album. Catchy. Can't wait for Dos.

[Marrymebilliejoe]

I personally like all the songs on Uno xD And it seems that the MORE I listen to it, the more I start to like the songs I originally thought were just mehh..

[Sanity Loan]

Catchy and awesome

[Clockwise]

It's difficult for me now to listen to much older Green Day, I just want to keep listening to trilogy songs. That never happened with 21CB, so I take it as a good thing for UNO.

[Schlappy]

a lot of people dont like troublemaker, and i totally understand, but i actually dig it because its weird and stupid haha. its kind of like fuck time, you cant take it seriously. theyre just wacky little songs about being horny. And there are actually some pretty clever lyrics (some not so clever) i mean "I wouldn't say I'm straight 'cause I'm bent out of shape, From now till death do we party just before it's too late" i see what you did there Bill

[Guest]

It's difficult for me now to listen to much older Green Day, I just want to keep listening to trilogy songs. That never happened with 21CB, so I take it as a good thing for UNO.

I agree. Seriously, I never felt like waking up in the morning saying. "MAN, I FEEL LIKE LISTENING TO AMERICAN IDIOT -> 39/SMOOTH" but with UNO, It's almost every other day I feel like listening to UNO, in full. I usually never do with most albums (except Angels and Airwaves.) but seriously, if UNO has done this to me, I wonder how it'll be like wit DOS and TRE...

[Insomniac45]

Here, I'll give my input on this album:

Nuclear Family - 8.5/10

Great song, kinda generic and what not, but still a very fun song. The countdown at the end seems to lag on though.

Stay The Night - 9/10

Love this song. Great guitar riffs and Billie's vocals are awesome. I really love the "Heyyyy ohhhhhh!"

Carpe Diem - 8/10

Pretty generic sounding song. Sounds like something that could of easily been an American Idiot B-side or something. Still pretty good though. I like the guitar solo in this one.

Let Yourself Go - 9/10

I really like this one. It has that "in your face" attitude that I love. Just a fast, crashy punk sounding song that reminds me of something from Nimrod. Also, the solo is fucking awesome.

Kill The Dj - 10/10

Green Day tried something different and totally pulled it off. I love this song. The dancy Clash feel it has to it just makes me grin. Also, the chorus is very catchy.

Fell For You - 9/10

Once again, another great song. This one has sort of a dreamy power-pop feel to it. It's childish lyrics to its upbeat tempo. Overall, just a great song.

Loss Of Control - 7/10

I think this is sort of the dud on the album. It's like tried too hard to be themselves like they were in the 90's. Still an OK song though.

Troublemaker - 10/10

Fucking love this one. Its guitar riff is unbelievably catchy. Also, its solo is just fucking awesome. Very nice Foxboro sounding song. Almost sounds like this one could of made it on iDos!

Angel Blue - 8/10

Just another "meh" song to me. Pretty catchy and what not, but it just doesn't stand out to me. Love the lyrics to this one though.

Sweet 16 - 10/10

My absolute favourite song off iUno!. Billie's falsetto and the subtle guitar solo. Just everything about this song I pretty much love.

Rusty James - 10/10

My second favourite song off the album. Love the overall message to this one. To me, it kinda means staying true to yourself and what you stand for. Also, awesome guitar riffs and the solo is great. Love this song.

Oh Love - 8/10

Wasn't my favourite when it first came out, but it grew on me as every Green Day song I didn't like at first did. It kinda lags on but it's a great album closer.

Sorry my review is so bland. I just don't elaborate very well

But there it is!

[Gregorovich]

I think the problem with the ratings system is that people tend to exaggerate their views to convey their point, which in turn distorts the entire system of 'stars' or 'out of ten'.

For example, many people will describe a song like Oh Love as being 'pretty boring and repetitive, generally worth skipping over during plays', then give it 2/10. Or at the same time, you might describe a song like Angel Blue as 'pretty meh' and then give it an 8/10. I always remember when doing reviews that 5/10 is not bad. It's standard. A C if you will. Based on that, song that are getting 3 or 4 are below standard, while songs getting 6 or 7 are above. If you want your review to be taken seriously, you've got to remember that songs which are getting 9 or 10 out of 10 are practically godsends, and are flawless to all extents and purposes. With a song, I always start a 5 - and then go up or down, based on whether I enjoy listening to it, or not. Thankfully, there isn't a song on UNO! which I don't get some form of enjoyment from listening to. Songs which I consider masterpieces of modern rock, like Sum 41's A Dark Road Out of Hell, are good enough to merit a 9/10. My favourite Green Day songs, like Holiday and East Jesus Nowhere, would probably get around 8.5.

Having said that, I'd rate the songs as follows:

Nuclear Family - 7.5/10

Stay the Night - 8/10

Carpe Diem - 7.5/10

Let Yourself Go - 6.5/10

Kill the DJ - 6/10

Fell For You - 6.5/10

Loss of Control - 5.5/10

Troublemaker - 5/10

Angel Blue - 5.5/10

Sweet 16 - 7/10

Rusty James - 8/10

Oh Love - 5.5/10

For Comparison:

Lady Cobra - 5.5/10

Nightlife - 3/10

Fuck Time - 7.5/10

Stray Heart - 7/10

The Forgotten - 8.5/10

X-Kid (from the preview) - 8.5/10

[Nzap]

I think the problem with the ratings system is that people tend to exaggerate their views to convey their point, which in turn distorts the entire system of 'stars' or 'out of ten'.

I agree.

That is why I think it's good that people tell how they rate the songs before the actual "review" so that the reader knows exactly how each song is categorized and rated.

[JAS0N]

I feel like I'm in the minority on Fell For You . There's not a song I don't like on ¡Uno! (the first 6 songs are killer actually) , but I crank Fell For You everytime and sometimes repeat it right after, it's so fucking catchy and fun. Maybe cause I'm older and grew up listening to the Beach Boys and Beatles but that song is just amazing to me.

[tdlyon]

I think the problem with the ratings system is that people tend to exaggerate their views to convey their point, which in turn distorts the entire system of 'stars' or 'out of ten'.

I agree. That's why I use 'out of five' instead of ten. It's like giving a song an A,B,C, etc.