Review
Green Day
Demolicious

Many people don't realize it, but Green Day released a trio of albums throughout the fourth quarter of 2012. However, due to some personal problems and a public breakdown at a festival from frontman, Billie-Joe, promotion for the albums was put on hold. Those albums, Uno!, Dos!, and Tre!, had their share of lackluster songs, but they also contained some of my personal favorite tracks from the band since 2000's, Warning. Much like 21st Century Breakdown, the entire project suffered from too much material. If they had cut it all down to one album of their best songs from those sessions, they could have made one of my favorite Green Day records. When I found out they were going to release Demolicious, I held out hope that they would rectify this whole project. 

Since Green Day demos rarely differ from the final product, there isn't much incentive in picking up the demo album, except for a previously unreleased song. This was Green Day's second chance to get these songs out and promote their trilogy records. In the end, they went mostly with mediocre songs. They also still went with too many (about half of the entire "Trilogy"). Of the 18 tracks, a majority come from Uno!. For the most part, they stick with the better Uno!tracks. "Kill the DJ" -- the one track that had the potential to be the most interesting in the demo stage -- was left off, unfortunately. I would have preferred it over a song like, "Carpe Diem." The inclusion of "Rusty James" was a good move. It's the strongest on all of Uno! along with "Stay the Night" -- which not only has a studio demo, but an acoustic version as well. While it's nice to hear a song drastically different from the final outcome, it feels so out of place with the rest of the collection. More acoustic demos would have been welcome.

Which brings me to the Dos! demos. There is no demo of "Amy" which is a huge bum-out. They could have used the live recording from when Billie first debuted the song and it would have worked. The biggest disappointment though is the lack of, "Lazy Bones." It was the best song from the entire trilogy and one of Armstrong's best in general. Instead, they went with underwhelming tracks like, "Baby Eyes," and "Makeout Party." Fortunately, the next best track, "Stray Heart" makes an appearance. It probably has one of Dirnt's catchiest and more memorable riffs in recent memory and an Armstrong solo that sounds like an ode to Lindsey Buckingham's, "Holiday Road." 

Tre! lends the demo collection 4 tracks and the previously unreleased track, "State of Shock" rounds it all out. Besides the acoustic version of "Stay the Night," this b-side sounds like the earliest demo. The song could have fit on any of the records, but probably would have belonged on Tre! the most. It does have more of an early Green Day sound than most, but overall it's forgettable. They didn't really use any notable Tre! songs besides "Missing You." They could have switched out, "A Little Boy Named Train," for nearly any other unused Tre! song. A stripped down version of "Brutal Love" could have been interesting, or there could have been another accompanying acoustic demo in, "Drama Queen." Since Tre! probably got the least exposure of all, there should have been more.

They had an opportunity to make the one solid album out of the trilogy songs with Demolicious but missed the mark. Even if it would have been in the form of demos. There are certain songs that express an older, more mature Green Day that I would have loved to have had in one place. Since they didn't go that route, the other direction they could have gone would have been in compiling more b-sides from the sessions. There were supposedly 65 songs written. I highly doubt there are recordings of all of them, but there has to be more b-sides than just "State of Shock." Ultimately, if you own all three records, this release is an unnecessary buy. I'd just suggest making a playlist of your favorite songs. If you haven't heard the records and feel like catching up with Green Day, then this collection has some good songs and some mediocre. It's fine if you don't want to invest in the trilogy, but want to hear some recent material. Overall, this would have been better as a bundled item with the Cuatro! DVD.