Green Day: Rock’s saddest joke

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 21:10:00 +0000

In what may constitute the biggest music news of the month, Green Day unveiled a new single, “Oh Love,” this morning, in the form of a 3-D lyric video. It’s the first new material from the band in three years, and it represents no great departure: The guitars still crackle, the drums still fill the empty spaces, and the production still sounds studiously antiseptic. There are a few fresh hints of '70s rock (think Boston or a less vocoded ELO) and perhaps a tinge of Celtic rock (think Dropkick Murphys on the chorus), but more than either of those influences, however, “Oh Love” sounds like it’s trying to serve the same function as “We Are Young” by Fun. This is music for a night out with friends, heraldic and triumphant and legendary — a rallying cry for youth. While Fun describe the scene with an almost anthropological eye, however, “Oh Love” is lyrically vague and musically anonymous. It’s not easy for any artist to write a song that is simultaneously anthemic and inconsequential, but Green Day have done just that.

Salon.com > American Idiot

Green Day: Rock’s saddest joke