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Green Day have stated loudly and proudly that their brand-new ¡Uno! ¡Dos! ¡Tré! trilogy is a departure from the two albums that preceded it (2004's masterful long-player American Idiot and its slightly less successful, sorta-sequel, 21st Century Breakdown), declaring their latest work to be "the end of that era."

And while there's certainly nothing wrong with a band reinventing themselves — in many ways, it's been the key to Green Day's 25-year career — or, after conquering the world twice over, deciding they just want to focus on playing hard and fast and free of constraint, after listening to ¡Uno! (currently streaming on their Facebook page, and set for release on Tuesday), I can't help but wonder one thing: If "that" era is over, well, then what are we to make of this new one?

Well, for starters, it's clear that this time out, Billie Joe and Co. were hell-bent on leaving the politics at the door ("we're a band, first and foremost" was Armstrong's reasoning). And while I can't fault them for that, I will say that portions of ¡Uno! reflect something of a lack of focus on weighty things. There was a time when Armstrong raged openly and viciously against suburban malaise — most of GD's early catalog — the suffocating nature of the status quo, and George W. Bush, both during