Green Day
Revolution Radio

There was a time up until about 10 years ago when I used to correspond with several girls, something that makes me smile a bit today due to the technological eras that keep chasing each other one after the other. It was the result of one of these exchanges that among the various CDs I received, I also got a strictly copied version of "Dookie".

I don't even know where that cover with the CD went, nor all those letters; maybe they are lost in the depths of some drawer or maybe not. What I do remember are those songs and my state of mind, my 18 years, the PS2, which was more of a music playback center combined with my little 14" cathode tube TV.
She instead is preserved, still working, but not turned on and ignored for centuries like "Warning".
And I still regret never having modified her, the little black Japanese console.

The fact is that that CD with the dirigible on the cover launching missiles was a nice breath of fresh air for me after listening to "American Idiot", thanks to the period I imagine. I already wore glasses, but Milo Auckerman had not yet come to visit me, and the sermons of Bad Religion were shamefully ignored.

From then on, after retrieving almost their entire discography, I could no longer listen to one of their albums post-2004, as if I had some sort of block.

I remember hearing some singles in the following years out of curiosity, but about the more recent past I don't know much; however, as far as I'm concerned, I can attest that their state of health today is not bad. In short, these old junkies and ex-masturbators still defend themselves well and managed to make me listen to another one of their works again after almost a decade.

Of course, we are in 2016, not 1992; there is no longer the lo-fi of "Best Thing In Town" (how that song used to hype me up), the socialists and the Super Nintendo have disappeared (or maybe not?), and they have become very rich, unlike Longview.

Washing your hands with grandma's soap and throwing the baby out the window would be simple but ethically wrong, especially if we remain silent about the often useless glam pomposities of Strung Out or the latest semi-cardboard plastic albums of Rise Against well hidden among the indie haze and midstream lights.

Over time, I have grown a timid bit of beard and hair, with the Green Day, apart from the bank account, what has changed over the years more than artistic direction are the productions which have become more and more polished post-1994. But you also have to consider that "Insomniac" is an unusual episode.

However, in the end, the songs in "Revolution Radio" answer present, straddling one, two, three traditions no longer virgin and rock, as in the mid-2000s jubilee blow.
Certainly with a bit less ambition (there isn't a new "Jesus Of Suburbia" of 9 minutes even though "Forever Now" might recall its shifting structure between accelerations and subdued bursts), but the mission can be said to be accomplished, between vintage whispers in black and white in "Outlaws", non-disturbing epic trials in "Say Goodbye", and successful reminiscences of 2m and 30s tracks (no, I didn't say hardcore) like "Youngblood" and "Bouncing Off The Wall" (I don't know why, but that chorus takes me back to early Oasis, oh well).
Even the choice of single, falling on the rhythmic pulses of "Bang Bang", proves almost fearless (it would have been more logical to bet all the chips on "Still Breathing" or the title track), and in the end, the only thing that doesn't convince me at all is "Troubled Times".

In short, it seems the wall between me and Green Day has fallen. I can still listen to them quite well, I'm almost satisfied, hoping Mould, Hart, and Norton won't get too angry when I go back to blasting "New Day Rising" in my headphones for the millionth time while reflectively admiring another sunset.

Let's close with an interesting fact. Descendents, Green Day, Blink-182, Sum 41, Yellowcard, all releasing a new work in the same year together passionately. For Descendents, it's a real big comeback after 12 years in this case.

Masters, headmasters, bullies, and lousy students all together squeezed in the grip of the calendar and trapped in the leap year.
What a beautiful thing destiny is, but it depends on the point of view.