Revolution Radio is what happens when a band that formed 30 years ago tries to close their eyes and act like they haven’t aged a day since 1986. This is the 12th studio album from the punk rock band Green Day, a band who has experienced a high amount of success in the past with albums like Dookie, Nimrod and American Idiot, albums that were praised for their suburban feel, political message and genuine songwriting. However, as of late, they haven’t been looking too hot, their 2012 albums Uno, Dos and Tré were considered a disappointment by fans and critics alike. Green Day is a band that has been making music for a long time, and from their latest releases it would seem like they’ve been running out of ideas. With this in mind, my expectations were fairly low for a Green Day album in 2016, but it somehow managed to be even worse than I expected.

There are a lot of problems apparent in Revolution Radio, but one of the first and most obvious to me is how badly the lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong’s voice has aged. He strains to try and hit the same notes he hit easily on past albums, and falls short track after track to capture the same vocal style that he has been able to hit in the past. This is compounded by the subpar mixing and production which comes off unprofessional and sloppy when the instruments all sound like they’re fighting over one another and end up cluttering up all the space on the tracks.

Some of the issues faced by this album could possibly be overlooked if the songs were good at their core, but they just come off as uninspired and boring. Not a single track even stood out for me on this album, most of them are just watered down versions of the various styles of music the band has explored in the past, with each track sounding like it could be the worst track on a better Green Day album. They don’t know what they want to do in their songwriting, they try (and fail) to capture the feel they had in their old albums, while simultaneously attempting to incorporate influences from modern pop punk and punk rock that just feel forced and don’t flow well with their sound at all.

The lyrics on this album are almost hilariously awful: Green Day has never been a band that is praised for having extremely deep or poignant lyrics, but on Revolution Radio they take their lyricism to new lows. The love song “Youngblood” is a perfect example of this, the lyrics range from cliche and uninspired to cringey and forced, asking the poor subject of this half baked love song “are you broken, like i’m broken?”

Most of the problems that this album faces can be summarized by the fact that Green Day seems to refuse to accept their age and progress as songwriters and performers. No one expects a revolutionary or experimental album from them at this point, but the fact that they seem to have no ideas left would call into question why they are even making music at this point at all. Green Day’s lack of progress as a band and failure to make anything that can stand out among their discography paints a sorry picture for the state of the band in 2016 and in the future. If you’re not a fan of the band already, they have put out a lot of good music that is worth checking out, just don’t look to this album for anything particularly exciting or interesting. If you’re a Green Day fan, I would just accept that they’re dead at this point and appreciate all the decent music they have already put out.