¡Uno!is the ninth studio album by Americanrockband Green Day, released on September 21, 2012, by Reprise Records. It is the first of three albums in the¡Uno!,¡Dos!,¡Tré!trilogy, a series of studio albums released from September 2012 to December 2012. Green Day recorded the album from February^[1]to June^[2]2012 at Jingletown Studios in Oakland, California. This is the band’s first album recorded as a quartet, as touring guitarist Jason White became an official member of the band prior to the recording sessions. White’s tenure as an official member lasted until 2016.

Artwork of the album was revealed in a video uploaded toYouTubeand the track list of the album, which consist of 12 songs was announced on June 26, 2012. The first single from the album, titled “Oh Love”, was released on July 16, 2012. The second single “Kill the DJ” was released on European iTunes Stores on August 14, 2012. The third single “Let Yourself Go” was released on the US iTunes Store on September 5, 2012, and a promotional single “Nuclear Family” was released on their YouTube channel on September 12, 2012. A music video for “Stay the Night” was released onRolling Stoneand their YouTube channel on September 24, 2012. The song “Rusty James” is based on the character Rusty-James from the novel Rumble Fish.

¡Uno!received generally positive reviews from music critics. It debuted at number two on the USBillboard200with first-week sales of 139,000 copies. The album also reached the top 10 of charts in numerous other countries.

In February 2012, Billie Joe Armstrong announced that the band was in the studio, recording material for a new album.^[1]In the statement, he said, “We are at the most prolific and creative time in our lives… This is the best music we’ve ever written, and the songs just keep coming. Instead of making one album, we are making a three album trilogy. Every song has the power and energy that represents Green Day on all emotional levels. We just can’t help ourselves … We are going epic as fuck!”^[3]

The band started work by rehearsing every other day and making songs.^[4]They recorded the album at Jingletown Studios in Oakland, California.^[5]The band recorded 37 songs^[6]and initially thought of making a double album.^[4]Armstrong suggested making a trilogy of albums like Van Halen’sVan Halen I,Van Halen IIandVan Halen III.^[4]He stated in an interview, “The songs just kept coming, kept coming. I’d go, Maybe a double album? No, that’s too much nowadays. Then more songs kept coming. And one day, I sprung it on the others: ‘Instead of Van Halen I, II and III, what if it’s Green Day I, II and III and we all have our faces on each cover?'”^[4]

In an interview toRolling Stone, Armstrong stated that the theme of¡Uno!would be different from that of21st Century BreakdownandAmerican Idiot, and would not be a third rock opera.^[4]He added that music on the record would be “punchier, more power pop – somewhere between AC/DC and the early Beatles” than the band’s previous albums.^[4]He also stated that a few songs on the album would also sound like garage rock and dance music.^[4]According to Armstrong, the song “Kill the DJ” was “straight-up dance music” and “four-on-the-floor rhythm”, which the band has never done before.^[4]

According to music critic David Fricke,¡Uno!is a power pop album less polemic and conceptual thanAmerican Idiotor21st Century Breakdown,^[7]and Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that its music is exclusively power pop and three-chord rock songs.^[8]It was also characterized as pop punk by Scott Kara ofThe New Zealand Heraldand Robert Cooke ofThe Fly,^[9]while Scott Heisel of theAlternative Presssaid that¡Uno!is apunk rockalbum.^[10]

In April 2012, Green Day announced through a press release it would be releasing a trilogy of albums titled¡Uno!,¡Dos!, and¡Tré!and stated that they would be released on September 25, 2012, November 13, 2012, and January 15, 2013 (later moved up to December 11, 2012), respectively, through Reprise Records.^[3][11]¡Uno!, the first album from the trilogy, was released on September 24, 2012, in the United Kingdom and on September 25 in the United States.^[12][13]

Green Day stated in an interview that each album from the trilogy¡Uno! ¡Dos! ¡Tré!has a face from the band members on their cover.^[4]

The band uploaded a trailer for the album on their official channel on YouTube showing the band in the recording studio, recording the album with the songs written on an erase board on June 14, 2012.^[14][15]During the trailer the cover artwork for the album was revealed.^[15][16]It features a black-and-white cutout of Billie Joe Armstrong’s face, with his eyes crossed-out with pink X’s, on a geometric, neon electric green background.^[15]The word “Green Day” is loudly splashed in pink across the top of the cover, while the word “¡Uno!” is sprawled in white in the lower left-hand corner.^[15]

“Oh Love”, was released as the first single from¡Uno!. It was released as the lead single on July 16, 2012.^[17]Upon its release as the lead song, “Oh Love” debuted on multiple world charts. The song made its debut at number one on the US Rock Songs with 13 million audience impressions at 145 reporting stations.^[18]The song is the band’s first to debut at number one on the charts and the third song ever to debut at number one on the Rock Songs chart, followingLinkin Park‘s “The Catalyst” and Foo Fighters’ “Rope” which made their debuts at number one on August 21, 2010 and March 12, 2011 respectively.^[18]It also reached #3 on the US Alternative Songs.

“Kill the DJ” was released as the second single from the album in Europe and Oceania on August 14, 2012. The single premiered on Zane Lowe’s show onBBC Radio 1in the UK the day before its release.^[19]The next day, the single was made available on the iTunes Store.^[20]

“Let Yourself Go” was released as the third single from¡Uno!on September 5, 2012.^[21]The song was performed live at the MTV Video Music Awards on September 6, 2012. It charted at #2 on the UK Rock Chart.

“Nuclear Family” was released as a promotional single in conjunction with Yahoo! and Spotify on September 11, 2012. The song was made available to stream for free and available to purchase through Spotify. A video for the song featuring the band playing it in a studio debuted on Yahoo! Music and the band’s officialYouTubechannel the same day.^[22]A similar video of the band performing “Stay the Night” was released on *Rolling Stone’*s website on September 23, 2012.^[23]The video is included with the deluxe edition of¡Uno!on iTunes. On October 6, the band uploaded the video of them performing “Troublemaker”.^[24]

On August 4, 2017, Green Day issued a re-released version of “Fell for You” called “Fell for You (Otis Mix)”, which amplified specific instrumental elements of the original song.^[25]

¡Uno!received generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics.^[26][36]AtMetacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 67, based on 32 reviews.^[26]In his review forRolling Stone, David Fricke complimented the album’s “12 blasts of hook-savvy mosh-pit pop” and found it to be a “plain relief” after the “weight and worry” of the band’s previous two albums, observing “a hipper, richer grip in the details.”^[33]Melissa Maerz ofEntertainment Weeklycalled the album “a welcome switch from high concept to high energy.”^[28]Kerrang!magazine called it “a sharp and often exhilarating change of gear from the Green Day of the past eight years.”^[37]BBC Music’s Ian Winwood called it “a work of masterfully controlled music.”^[38]Mojorecommended it to fans of the band’s 1994 albumDookieand stated, “your favourite slacker-punks are, briefly, back.”^[30]Scott Heisel ofAlternative Presspraised its “loud, fast, catchy-as-fuck punk rock” and wrote that its “stripped down instrumentation” and “more direct lyrics” are “mutually beneficial.”^[10]Jason Heller ofThe A.V. Clubcommented that “filler abounds, and it doesn’t land with quite as much delirious abandon as it once did, but Armstrong’s power-pop impulse can still pack a face-splitting punch.”^[27]AllMusiceditor Stephen Thomas Erlewine felt that its “big, crisp, and clean” sound “undercuts some of the punkiness of Green Day’s intentions”, but complimented their “attack” as “precise” and wrote that the “huge” hooks “gleefully bludgeon doubters into blissful submission.”^[8]

In a mixed review, Ed Power ofHot Pressobserved “over-familiarity” and “less to say onUno” than on the band’s previous work, stating, “they are doing what they do best. Nothing less, but certainly nothing more.”^[39]Dave Simpson ofThe Guardiancalled¡Uno!“a very decent fist of sounding like their twentysomething selves”, but wrote that “the pace doesn’t vary and the recent social commentary … has given way to more teenage concerns”.^[29]Slant Magazine’s Yorgo Douramacos called the album “fairly strong”, but felt that the songs “sound like only slightly altered versions of previous entries in the Green Day catalogue.”^[34]In a negative review, Andy Gill ofThe Independentpanned “Green Day’s devotion to the most basic of rock formats” and called the music “patronising corporate rock masquerading, in sweary adolescent anthems as somehow anti-establishment.”^[40]Randall Roberts of theLos Angeles Timesasserted that the album was too “typical” and “commercial” to be a punk album, writing that it “feels like the work of a band that has painted itself into an aesthetic corner.”^[41]Paul Mardles ofThe Observercriticized the album as “largely throwaway, its frenzied, phlegm-flecked songs littered with sentiments … that sound daft coming from a 40-year-old frontman.”^[42]Greg Kot of theChicago Tribunewas ambivalent towards its “back-to-basics” approach and perceived a lack of “memorable lyric[s]”.^[43]Barry Nicolson ofNMEfound the album more comparable to “the three albums that followed”Dookie, noting “highs that prove unsustainable, and lows that hope you’re too adrenalised to notice.”^[31]Rolling Stoneranked it number eight on their year-end top albums list for 2012.^[44]

The album debuted at number two on the USBillboard200chart, selling 139,000 copies in its first week.^[45]After 3 months,Uno had shifted 256,000 copies in the US.^[46]The album has sold over 325,000 copies in the US.^[47]In the United Kingdom, it also debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart on first-week sales of 42,651 copies.^[48]As of October 13, 2016,¡Uno!has sold 125,531 copies in the UK.^[49]In Canada, the album debuted at number three on the Canadian Albums Chart selling 12,000 copies.^[50]

All lyrics written by Billie Joe Armstrong; all music composed by Green Day (Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool) except where noted^[51].

Credits for¡Uno!adapted from liner notes.^[5]

Green Day

Additional musicians

Production