What to make of Father of All… in 2020

Green Day’s February release, Father of All Motherfuckers (2020), is a tongue-in-cheek middle finger to the record industry. With almost no song exceeding three minutes in length, Green Day did the bare minimum on their last album with Warner Bros Records in order to fulfill their contract and leave. The passion and drive seen on earlier albums, such as American Idiot (2004), 21st Century Breakdown (2009), and Revolution Radio (2016), is simply not here on this release. Now I ask, why?

Father of All… screams of recycled ideas mish-mashed together in a rush. The album art itself reuses the iconic hand grenade from American Idiot and slaps a barfing clip art unicorn on top of it. Compare this to any other album of theirs and the differences in effort are striking. On every other album Green Day has released, they always went out of their way to ensure the album art sends a message related to the content of the music: 21st Century Breakdown’s album art of a couple kissing in the midst of warfare (two characters which are introduced within the music, might I add) communicates love and hope, but Father of All…’s cover art sends a message of laziness and immaturity, which is definitely also seen within the content and nature of the music on the album. 

Let’s look back at Green Day’s thirty year career — yes, thirty years. Being Oakland natives, their impact on the punk scene of the Bay Area was monumental, and their 90’s albums, Kerplunk (1991), Dookie (1994), Nimrod (1997), and Insomniac (1995) cemented their place as icons of rock during this time. It was through these albums, specifically Dookie, that they were able to drive the Bay Area punk scene to become as influential to America’s youth as it was, and also help them become household names. The success they attained through Dookie propelled them to become headliners, and they rode off this success over future years to create one of their most famous albums, American Idiot—an album that sold over 16 million copies worldwide, has its own Broadway musical, went 6x Platinum in the US, and has a film adaptation. 

Green Day’s reach and influence over millions of people and several generations is something to behold, so it is only logical that one would expect the best of the best from a band of such a caliber, right? 

That is subjective. The main reason for their success has been their unending ability to push the envelope when it comes to creativity and break social norms. However, their creative sparks are not always approved of by the general public (which is to be expected). In 2012, they ambitiously released a trilogy of albums within the span of a few months, and many fans saw the lack of effort within each album’s songs as them simply relying on the gimmick of quantity over quality to turn a profit. This same idea of forgoing well-written songs for reaching the bare minimum of what they set out to do is exactly what is seen on Father of All Motherfuckers. 

Green Day likes to mess around with their audience, and people in general, so it is no surprise that this recent release has exactly enough songs to be considered a full length album, is the last album they needed to crank out in order to be freed from their contract, and that everything on the album itself screams of irony. Recycled art, seven of the ten songs being under three minutes, and the majority of the singles being poppy, radio-mixed tunes ready to be monetized all point to the fact that this album is a joke. They have released this to poke fun at the record industry and make a statement, which is what they are known for, and it would be doing them and their rich history of breaking the mold an injustice to take this album as anything other than a political statement. Father of All Motherfuckers should serve as a reminder to not take ourselves too seriously and to always question the rules that preside over us in all situations, across all circumstances, and in every scenario in which a unicorn is involved–especially if it means going out of your comfort zone and trying something new.

Article by Amber Ellertson