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Karen’s Song of the Week: “Oh Love” by Green Day

Posted by Karen Marchuska on 09/11 at 04:39 PM

In honor of the Bryce Jordan Center announcing a Green Day concert in January, and their latest release coming out in a mere two weeks, this week’s song is the first single from that album Oh Love.

Green Day first played this song almost a year ago, at a “secret show” in October of 2011, but the studio version wasn’t officially released until this past July 16.  Though listed as the last of 12 tracks on the upcoming album, Uno, this is a solid song for their first single and a great way to get them back on Top 40 radio.  “Oh Love” debuted at the top of Billboard’s Rock Songs list, one of only three songs ever to be at the top the first week it released. The other two were Linkin Park’s “The Catalyst” (Aug. 21, 2010) and Foo Fighters’ “Rope” (March 12, 2011).  The enticing part of the song is its simplicity: one main guitar plus some occasional drumming drives the entire track.  The past two Green Day albums, 21st Century Breakdown and American Idiot, have utilized a lot of extra production, sound effects, and instrumentation, while this new track goes back to the sound of Green Day when they started as a garage-punk band. They have also returned to toned-down and more relatable lyrics about life and love, after writing two albums of politically charged anthems.

Since their latest releases were two punk operas, Green Day has chosen to do the next logical thing and record three albums worth of straight songs.  But as lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong said in a Rolling Stone article earlier this year, “the songs just kept coming…it’s just a crazy idea that happens to be working really well.”

The first album in the 3-part series, Uno, comes out September 25.  Tickets for Green Day at the Bryce Jordan Center on January 11, 2013 will be available this coming Friday, September 14 at 10AM.