Father of all Clapping Simulators am I right?
Intro Video
Father of all is the most recent album to come from your favorite local pop/punk band (If you are from the Bay Area like myself) released on Feb 7th 2020
I, as many of you, have a long history with Green Day. Growing up hearing Longview, good riddance, Brain Stew and all of the classic hits on KSJO back in the day, times were good. Being a teenager when American Idiot came out, I loved it, well, loved half of it. There were some songs on there that were far too, Broadwayee for me (you can see where this is going). 21st Century Breakdown comes out, and I haaaaated it. Know your Enemy is the first song I hear and I couldn’t help but think, Even by Green Day standards, this is far to simple. Listen to the rest of it and I’m just (clap clap) I’m good
I pretty much ignored them from that point on, save for when they would come on the radio for a nostalgia trip. Then the Uno, Dos, Tre set came out. Gave those a listen. My old love for the band could be felt coming to the serface, Uno and Dos were great, Tre was ok. Just straight Rock and Roll songs with some legit memerable songs. If you haven’t checked them Out I highly recommend Uno at the very least
So, how is Father of All... lets find out
Father of All
Not off to a good start. Billie starts this song singing in falsetto. And I don’t know if I’m alone on this, but his falsetto does not sound all that good. The music itself isn’t too bad though, except for the rhythmic clapping that seems a little out place (hopefully this doesn’t become a trend) The chorus is actually pretty good, and sounds like the most Green Day part of this song, minus his Michael Jackson impersonation at the end of it. Overall, an OK opening track
Fire, Ready, Aim
It’s going to be a trend isn’t it.... The clapping takes away from what is strong follow up to the opener. Honestly this probably should have been the opener. Fire off the line, so to speak. Lyrics are fun, easy to see a crowd singing along to this one especially in the chorus. Tweak some things and remove others and you’d have a solid rock song
Oh Yeah!
I thought trends were supposed to die... This is the first real dud to me. It’s well documented that they use a Joan Jett sample for the chorus (from a much better song). Unfortunately, it doesn’t really fit, and its the title of the damn song. What really sucks though is the chorus that they perform before the sample is actually pretty good. The verse is dull and just kinda there. The message in the song isn’t so bad at least
Meet Me on the Roof
The track sounds like it could have been part of some love montage moment in a Hallmark movie. Upbeat, bubblegum sounding but nothing too offensive. Not my type of music really, but its fun. Don’t be surprised to hear this in an upcoming movie used as what I described
I Was a Teenage Teenager
This is an odd one. It does that old blues lyrical thing of a repeating verse. What would have been better, to me, is scrap the second verse, or at least change it so its not the same as the first verse. Longest on the album gets the shortest part, go figure. Oh, and no clapping, good job
Stab You in the Heart
Ok here we go, this is much more like it. This is the song I was waiting for. Old school bluesy style riff, nonstop pace. Kind of like if the Beatles stayed up tempo. Which brings me to my next point, this is how you do clapping tastefully, they do the live crowd thing here in the second verse, so here, it sounds more natural. This song is a joy from start to finish. From here on out its smooth sailing, for the most part
Sugar Youth
This sounds like it could of been on Uno Dos Tre. Another good one, that actually sounds like Green Day. I wish there was more here along this style. I get they were going for a rock history lesson. But let me be frank, most of you used History as nap time
Junkies on a High
This one gives me vibes from the song Nightlife, at least the Billie parts from there. Slow song but it grooves. It’s the chorus though that makes this song, that and the tasteful little guitar bend throughout the song. The chorus hits nicely and ends on a satisfying Burn. Who doesn’t love a good burn
Take the Money and Crawl
Love the western opening. Now I wanna play RDR. Music stops to vocal guitar harmony almost always works, and in this case, it does. Song is high octane, classic rock styled riff that sounds like Dave Grohl stood in to perform it. It’s just good. Take the Money and Crawl is an obvious play on Take the money and run, but makes for a good line that lends itself well to the chorus. This is also the track that earned this albums Parental Advisory.
Graffitia
And we end it with a dud. It brings up memories of the parts of American Idiot I did not like, or worse, 21st century breakdown. We were on such a roll too. It’s not terrible but if it were in the middle of the album it would be a skip for me. Also it sounds like I fought the law and Mony Mony did the fusion dance. Mony fought the law, I fought the Mony, Why is Mony?
This album is such a mixed bag of ok, Good, or just plain formulaic boringness. Most of the Guitar riffs sound like you just typed Rock into the search bar on GarageBand and went with it. And that God, Awful clapping that drowns out the snare drum, you know, the thing that’s actually supposed to accent the beat? Green Day, or anyone making music, unless the song is Handclap, leave the clapping to the audience when playing live. Let it come organically, don’t force the clapping rhythm on them, when you do, its no better than just using a laugh track.It creates a high impact, unpleasant and distracting sound that takes away from the music when listening at a high volume, which is how you’re supposed to listen to this (in my opinion)! Remove that from here, or at least used much more sparingly, and I think it would have been better. This album is only, 26 minutes long, and is a full priced release, I mean, what the hell. If this thing was 7, maybe 8 dollars, that would have been more reasonable and frankly fit what I think they were going for with this. There are moments in this album that are fun and have that classic essence I want from Green Day, the rest is either boring, Formulaic or annoying. Look, I get I’m basically asking for something to be formulaic while not being formulaic, but, some formulas are better than others, just ad that chemical X. All things considered, This album was just, Meh
Thank you for checking out my review For Father of all. Next, I am taking a dive into Ordinary Man from Ozzy Osbourne. Will it be his Swan Song? What other albums should I check out? Comment Below and I’ll check them out.
Click up there to check out my intro video explaining my plans and outline for this channel, click here to check out my EP in all of its Midi Glory. Consider clicking here to subscribe, and ring that bell to be notified on my next Video. ‘Til then, Name’s David, but you, can call me Fenrirock
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