(Single from album, "¡Uno!")
Having only just finished writing about Radiohead, it would be commonplace to wait a while, pick a song, and have a new review published for, perhaps, next week sometime. Unfortunately, the post/pop-punk gods have contacted me through the radio in the form of their new single, something which is probably worthy of being deemed better than sex.
“Kill The DJ” is everything Green Day aren’t. It’s colourfully brash, poppy, danceable to, and very mainstream. Painfully so to some purist Green Day fans who have followed the America punk giants since their genesis as a post punk band in 1987 with the incredibly short, but very angry “39/Smooth”, their debut album. Even the song before this, “Oh Love”, is more in-keeping with their punk-like sound, opening with a choking guitar and jumping ecstatically into rock orgasm territory with a harmonised vocal and expertly timed drum sequence, tied together by a satisfying and Sauvé bass-line, edging along in the background. And “Kill The DJ” offers very few, if any of these classic “American Idiot” attributes.
Jumping straight into “Parallel Lines” mode with it’s opening jaunty guitar/drum shocks of sound, the song moves very quickly into pop territory, with very dance-like timing and guitar voices like those on your average, trashy no. 1 record. The brilliance of the track however, is being able to hear the Green Day you know and love tackle the new direction and retain their classic atmosphere. The moment for me was Armstrong’s vocal switching into the chorus and shouting “Shoot the f***ing DJ!” before going on to ask that the DJ be held underwater “until the motherf***er drowns”…lovely, classic, caring, sentimental punk music.
And at only 3:43, you can finish the song, and listen again another 5 times without feeling bored. The initial sting of the track repeats, with the same intensity each time, another magical aspect of most memorable Green Day tracks.
For fans it will be a shock to hear such a dance feel to this band’s music, but it really works. The guitars synchronise with the drums perfectly, and the bass does its own thing in the background, looping round with the rest of the track, but still maintaining it’s famous sense of individuality amongst the pop/rock noise of the song. There’s also a lovely bridge with the electric guitars muted, and strummed repeatedly as Armstrong bleats, “Shoot the f***er down!”. It’s just a perfect package, and similarly to “My Iron Lung” in the last review, has a very polished, and finished feel to it. Again, this is a song which does everything very, very well, but perhaps differently to Radiohead, Green Day don’t seem to have left any room for negativity here; this is isn’t some reflective lamenting, or deeply considered melancholia; it’s raw, kidd-ish emotion. And if the track does nothing else, it makes me incredibly excited about the upcoming trilogy of albums, starting with “Uno!” on September 15th…
This song is unique. It tackles a subject, explored only once before in popular music, and by a band which went on to gain legendary status. But frankly, it would be unfair to say that Morrissey’s repeated chorus of “Hang The DJ!” has the same ecstatic feeling of one-off musical greatness as Billie Joe-Arnstrong’s latest crazy venture has. And that, for me especially, is saying something…
★★★★★
Versions of “Kill The DJ”
Album/Single Version – 3:43