Green Day has described its forthcoming trio of albums as a party. "With the first album you're getting in the mood to party. On the second one, you're at the party. And the third album you're cleaning up the mess," frontman Billie Joe Armstrong told Rolling Stone earlier this month.
However, that party comes with consequences. The last song on the band's second album of the three, ¡Dos!, is a tribute to the late Amy Winehouse. The track is titled "Amy," and as Armstrong recently told NME, it's a fitting finale for the "party" record.
"I didn't know her, I just thought it was a real tragic loss," he said. "It's interesting because if you think about '¡Dos!', it's a party record and so at the end of it maybe 'Amy' kind of comes across as the consequences of the party."
The frontman said that he felt "really sad" after the "Back to Black" singer died from an accidental alcohol poisoning last year, because she was a direct link between today's generation and the soul music of previous generations.
"I just thought her music and her taste in music was so connected to old soul music and the original Motown and Otis Redding and Sam Cooke and things like that," Armstrong said. "And I think that was a major loss."
Green Day's trilogy of albums, titled ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tré!, will be released over this fall and winter, beginning with ¡Uno! on Sept. 25. The ¡Uno! cover boasts frontman Billie Joe Armstrong's face, while ¡Dos! features bassist Dirnt and ¡Tré! highlights drummer Tre Cool.
Each of the three albums has a totally different vibe. "The first one is power pop," Armstrong recently told Rolling Stone. "The second is more garage-y, Nuggets-type rock. And the third is supposed to be epic."
Last month the trio dropped a 30-second trailer for the "Nuggets-type" album (¡Dos!), in which the band teases plenty of "songs about sex." In March, Armstrong promised that the record would be "the first time we've ever really sung about f---ing."
Armstrong also recently told Rolling Stone in June that the band wanted something "punchier."
"People ask me all the time. Even my son asked me, 'Dad, would you ever go back to playing songs like from [1994's] Dookie and [1992's] Kerplunk?' I love those records. I love the punk stuff I grew up on. But there are so many bands who make the mistake -- 'We're going back, old-school.' Well, that's all you're doing. You already did it," said Armstrong.
"So we're changing the guitar sound," he added. "We're not going with the big Marshall-amp thing. We wanted something punchier, more power pop -- somewhere between AC/DC and the early Beatles."
In addition to three new albums, MTV reports that Green Day has two documentaries on the way. One is being made by Tim Lynch and Tim Wheeler. The other is a look back at the band's early days using vintage footage from before "Dookie."
The first of Green Day's music trilogy drops on Sept. 25, the second on Nov. 13 and the third on Jan. 15.
Green Day Songs And Performances:
