Listen to Green Day’s ‘Bang Bang,’ First Single From New Album, ‘Revolution Radio’
After giving us three albums in 2012, Green Day are recharged and ready to go. They've released a lyric video for "Bang Bang," the topical first single from their 12th album, Revolution Radio, which is coming out Oct. 7. You can listen to it below.
Although Revolution Radio isn't a concept album along the lines of 2004's American Idiot, Rolling Stone calls it "a collection of songs about the chaotic state of America in 2016." Singer Billie Joe Armstrong tells the magazine that "Bang Bang" was inspired by the recent spell of gun violence that has gripped the country.
"It's about the culture of mass shooting that happens in America mixed with narcissistic social media," he said. "There's this sort of rage happening, but it's also now being filmed and we all have ourselves under surveillance. To me, that is so twisted. To get into the brain of someone like that was freaky. It freaked me out. After I wrote it, all I wanted to do was get that out of my brain because it just freaked me out."
For the first time since 2000's Warning, Green Day have produced Revolution Radio by themselves, which Armstrong believes resulted in better performances. "This time I just wanted to feel the freedom of just depending on ourselves and getting in a room," he continued. "There's no in-between person and we're forced to sort of be in there with each other. So it was really interesting to kind of see how everybody interfaced with each other. Tre [Cool]'s drumming on this record is I think the best he's ever done; I could say the same with Mike [Dirnt]'s bass playing. He really got into his musicianship as being a bass player. He even took lessons. And it was just really great to see how he sort of flourished on those bass lines."
Green Day have Revolution Radio available for pre-order at their website with a limited-edition red vinyl and a digital-download-plus-lyric-book set. Both include an instant download of "Bang Bang."
Green Day, 'Revolution Radio' Track Listing
1. "Somewhere Now"
2. "Bang Bang"
3. "Revolution Radio"
4. "Say Goodbye"
5. "Outlaws"
6. "Bouncing Off the Wall"
7. "Still Breathing"
8. "Youngblood"
9. "Too Dumb to Die"
10. "Troubled Times"
11. "Forever Now"
12. "Ordinary World"
Listen to "Bang Bang" by Green Day
Every Green Day Album Ranked In Order of Awesomeness