When Green Day announced their 2020 Hella Mega Tour with Weezer and Fallout Boy last year, I was, as the kids say, stoked. I saw Green Day on their last tour and they put on a great show, so if they’re going to amp up with two more big-time nostalgia-driven bands, why the hell wouldn’t I go? The tour stops in Chicago this August, so it’s probably the farthest out I’ve ever bought a ticket for a concert.
When I later realized Green Day and Weezer were both releasing new albums in advance of the tour, I became considerably less stoked. You KNOW songs from the new albums will work their way into the set lists, and we all just want them to Play the Damn Hits. At least with Green Day’s new record, titled Father of All…, we have a lot of time to sit and memorize the singles from this quaint, 26-min ride by the time the tour rolls around.
Father of All… earns its stripes for its aforementioned brevity, and for embracing the Play the Hits mentality that so many fans have toward aging rock groups like Green Day. Every song feels pulled directly from a page of “How to Write Arena Rock Songs for Dummies,” but because Green Day are legends of the genre, every song is airtight. Despite the repetition and mundanity of it all, you can’t help but get sucked into the radio-friendliness and, ipso facto, live set-readiness of each track.
Ultimately, enjoying this album is highly dependent upon your willingness to “eat the slop,” as it were. I don’t know whether Green Day wrote this album solely because the tour was imminent, or if this entry to their discography is just an earnest acknowledgment of who they are as a band, but I do know they’ll get some sweet royalties from EA Sports for licensing out half of the album for upcoming Madden and FIFA soundtracks.
Score: 🤘🤘 / 5
