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Here’s the thing about Green Day: They’re at the point in their career where they can legitimately do whatever they want. They’ve sold 70 million albums worldwide and played to nearly as many in their 25-year career. Hell, it’s practically a given that they’ll be a first-ballot inductee for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2013, their first official year of eligibility. The amount of times this band have faded into the darkness only to blast back into relevancy is staggering, and that’s why we really shouldn’t be surprised that for the trio’s first new music in nearly three-and-a-half years is the first part of a trilogy yet has no heady concept tied to it, unlike 2004’s American Idiot or 2009’s 21st Century Breakdown. Instead, ¡Uno! does what Green Day have always done best: play loud, fast, catchy-as-fuck punk rock that results in near-endless replay value.

The first thing to take away from ¡Uno! is that it shares little in common with its more rock-opera-esque predecessors. Most songs are stripped down to strictly guitar/bass/drums, with a minimum of excess multitracking, auxiliary percussion or guitar solos. More importantly, this album is fun. A song as simple as “Fell For You” seems to adhere to the same Ramones-esque formula New Found Glory tried on last year’s