Green Day has a history of with fiery lead singles. “American Idiot,” “Know Your Enemy” and “Oh Love” have all kicked off album cycles in no-nonsense fashion, but none’s gone harder than their latest. The veteran punk band unveiled plans for its 12th studio album, Revolution Radio, on Thursday (Aug. 11), along with the lyric video for its first single, “Bang Bang,” which was inspired by the deadly mass shootings that have plagued America recently.
Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong broke down the new song in an interview with Rolling Stone:
“It’s about the culture of mass shooting that happens in America mixed with narcissistic social media,” he told the magazine. “There’s this sort of rage happening, but it’s also now being filmed and we all have ourselves under surveillance. To me, that is so twisted. To get into the brain of someone like that was freaky. It freaked me out. After I wrote it, all I wanted to do was get that out of my brain because it just freaked me out.”
Revolution Radio was recorded at Green Day’s own studio in Oakland and produced by the band — the first time they’ve skirted an outside producer since 2000’s Warning. It follows on their trio of 2012 albums, ¡Uno! ¡Dos! ¡Tré!, and is their first new music since Armstrong entered rehab for prescription-pill addiction.
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Revolution Radio hits stores Oct. 7. Coming after Blink-182’s highly successful 2016 album California, a strong showing could signal much more talk of pop-punk’s revitalized mainstream success.
Below, find the new album’s cover art.