Black Dog Blog

Kat got me this album for my birthday earlier this month. (Thanks, Kat!) My thoughts after 1.67 listens:

I like it loads!

This album is heavy on the fire and explosions. It's not a peaceful album. Not that I'm sure what you were expecting from 30–40-year-old punk rockers, but they're very much not mellowing out.

There's the usual Green Day playfulness to the lyrics ("She smashed her knuckles into winter / as autumn's wind fades into black / She is the saint on all the sinners / the one that's fallen through the cracks", "Join the choir, we will be singing / in the church of wishful thinking", "She puts her makeup on / like graffiti on the walls of the heartland", and "Little girl, little girl you're such a liar / you're just a junkie preaching to the choir"), along with a few duff rhymes (fire/desire, killjoy/Detroit) and a few awesome ones (vendetta/Beretta).

I shouldn't like Peacemaker, but I really really do.

You get a nice fat booklet with all the lyrics in (Green Day are always great for that, even if their proofreading has been a little slack on previous albums), and the album art is a great Banksy/graffiti style.

Overall, as a piece of music, I rate this higher than American Idiot, particularly because there isn't a single crap track on this one. Least favourite, I suppose, is Know Your Enemy, which I found silly and repetitive when I first heard it, but in fact after three listens I don't mind it.

Here's a song from the album, ¡Viva la Gloria!. Listen past 1:05 or you won't get the full experience.

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