Released September 10, 2019, Green Day’s new single “Father of All” encapsulates modern pop punk. While it does sport clap-along (literally) beats and catchy lyrics, it still retains the gritty guitar chords and pumped-up bass of earlier albums. The combination of past and present in the song also serves as an analogy for the title of their new album, Father of All Motherf*ckers.

Green Day harks back to their days on the early to mid-to-late 2000s as the most commercially successful pop punk band to hit the charts, and the forebears of those who came after them on the scene. Fall Out Boy, Panic! @ the Disco, All Time Low and countless others were able to run and become smash hits because Green Day paved the way for pop punk and emo to become acceptable music for the airwaves. 

Some have argued that “Father of All”, the first taste of their upcoming and thirteenth album (to be released February 7, 2020 through Reprise Records) is too much like Green Day’s descendants and not enough like their original sound, which was straight out of 1990s grunge. Though the clapping is a bit much, Billie Joe Armstrong’s voice is autotuned beyond recognition, and I personally really want to like it because of the ethos Green Day carries. The bones of their earlier music are still there, as they have been through all their musical endeavors. Green Day is, after all, a rock band.

“Father of All” drops amidst a very sudden tour with Fall Out Boy and Weezer. Titled the “Hella Mega Tour”, it started to a sold-out show at the Whisky-a-Go-Go in West Hollywood and is scheduled to run from March 2020 to August 2020. The closest show to Albany is on August 27, 2020, and in Boston, MA.