The Longshot - Love Is For Losers

I don't know if it's just me aging or Billie Joe Armstrong's voice gets more and more annoying after every year. Just like with Bono from U2, it gets painful sometimes listening to him singing because it feels more like moaning. There were some signs about it over the years after "American Idiot" but it all came together with the latest Green Day release "Revolution Radio" which was mediocre at best with some awful vocal performances by Armstrong.

So, it makes sense for me to try to avoid him for a while. But then again - as a devoted Green Day fan I wanted to put my head in the gutter one more time for his new band The Longshot. Armstrong has had quite interesting side projects in his career - especially Pinhead Gunpowder but this thing is not something I would go back to.

The Longshot is a four-piece band but the who the hell are the other guys and do their names matter? I understand that Armstrong can give'em a kickstart with this band but at the same time, it feels like this album is just a bunch of outtakes from Green Day's recent releases. One of the members Jeff Matika is touring guitarist for Green Day also points to the fact that this is just Armstrong taking a break from recording with Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool or probably (and more accurately) the other way around.

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The opening track "The Last Time" is a good example of what to expect further in the album. It has a rock'n'roll spark but lacks actual fire. Armstrong sounds really overbored when singing and the song itself turns out to be a dull version of The Hives or The Strokes. The chorus of the eponymous single echoes back to one of Green Day's finest songs "Waiting" but never reaches that high level.

That's what the whole album is all about - lazy songwriting, lazy performances, and much unnecessary handclapping. There aren't really bad songs but overall there is nothing to leave you in an awe. Ironically, the band's name says pretty much everything about "Love Is For Losers" - it was a longshot and just a small part of the Green Day fanatics will jump on that wagon.

I'm sure Armstrong still has the talent to pull out great songs but recently he's just lost his charm and everything he touches sounds bland and almost the same. This makes it difficult to find the gems in the haystack 'cause quantity overshadows quality. In fact, I found some of the standalone singles preceding the album (not included here) to be way more interesting - like "Devil's Kind". Still, if you're intrigued enough, you can check this out. There's a chance you can be one of those unconditional Green Day fanatics. And yeah, I'm aging, too.

Listen if you:

still have a Billie Joe poster somewhere in your house

like boredom

Recommendation rate:

Below average