Ah, Green Day, my old adversaries. Once inseparable, we’ve now reached the loveless marriage stage of our relationship, with the only thing keeping us together being the memory of happier times.
Let’s rewind to the summer of American Idiot; everything was great, “Jesus of Suburbia” graced my mp3 player a dozen times a day and, like every other 12 year old at the time, I was infatuated with Billie, Mike and Tre. After the honeymoon phase inevitably died, I coped by delving through their back catalogue and stumbled across other greats, such as 39/Smooth and Dookie, which kept me going for another few years. Then, as time moved on I began to feel more and more neglected. First I was subjected to 21st Century Breakdown and then the effort just stopped altogether. A Broadway show, three appalling albums and a week or two in rehab later and I’m met with Demolicious; a special one off for Record Store Day that promises to be a return to form for the Pop-Punk threesome.
Demolicious boasts 18 demo versions of tracks from Unos!, Dos! and Tres! fresh off the cutting room floor, said by the band to be what their three latest catastrophes (read: albums) would’ve sounded like were they still under Lookout Records (R.I.P). “Oh Love” and “Stay The Night” come close to working as raw versions of the super polished tracks that ended up on the LP, but are just as uninspiring. “Stay The Night” does best as the acoustic version that closes, possibly being the stand out track from the album (though this alone doesn’t warrant the £30.00 price tag). Not much changes for “99 Revolutions”, “Carpe Diem” or “Let Yourself Go”, with both cuts sounding pretty similar to the previously versions released, although “99 Revolutions” manages to push the punk side of things due to Mike’s more apparent baseline. Let yourself go, an already fast and energetic track, manages to sound revitalised here, adding even more energy and being the closest point on the record to the promised Dookie sound.
New tracks “State of Shock” and “Missing You” make it obvious why they never made the final cut (although admittedly both are still in the demo stage), with neither song providing any real punch or managing to add anything fresh to the album.
While the album certainly has a stripped down sound to it, this unfortunately doesn’t save the songs from being crap, and instead of providing some Green Day nostalgia, instead highlights that not only is their new sound shit, but, take that away, so are the lyrics. Sadly, like countless others, I can’t help but hold out for a return to form for the trio, and it’s probably going to take Cuatro! Cinco! and Seis! before I finally give up. In the meantime I can cry myself to sleep listening to Dookie, thinking of better times.
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