Rock icons Green Day, Fall Out Boy and Weezer have announced a combined worldwide arena tour entitled ‘The Hella Mega Tour’. As promo for the tour, all three bands have released new singles from their respective upcoming projects. I wouldn’t say that any of the songs are particularly amazing, but I’m sure it won’t stop the hardcore fanbases of these rock-titans selling out the tour in record speeds. I’ll break down and review each single individually as there’s a lot going on with experimentation, collaborations and new styles from each band.

Green Day – ‘Father of All…’

Green Day’s new single is perhaps my favourite of all the promotional tracks released. ‘Father of All…‘ is the lead single and title track of the groups’s 2020 album, their first release since 2016’s album ‘Revolution Radio‘. The group themselves described the track as “soul, Motown, glam and manic anthemic [sic]” and whilst I’m not sure if I agree with all these adjectives, I would say the track feels more alternative in style than the classic rock of the band’s previous material. In 2008, Green Day released an album entitled, ‘Stop Drop and Roll!!!‘ under the stage name ‘Foxboro Hot Tubs‘. This new single sounds a lot more similar to this garage rock/alternative style of their old side-project, and whilst hardcore fans may not be a fan of this change, I for one am excited to hear the rest of their new material next year.

Fall Out Boy – ‘Dear Future Self (Hands Up) feat. Wyclef Jean’

After the group’s 2018 album, ‘Mania‘, Fall Out Boy have released ‘Dear Future Self (Hands Up)‘ featuring rapper Wyclef Jean as promo for their second greatest hits album due out in November. The track has a surf-rock style guitar part throughout, which I really like, but I’d like to know why they felt the need to feature Wycelf Jean. The rapper doesn’t add anything to the track, if anything his post-chorus refrain of “She windin’ like she losing her mind” makes the track a lot worse. Also I wouldn’t say that he’s relevant or will help gain attention to any song in 2019, it’s just an odd move given I’m sure the rock group could have enlisted a bigger name. The song has got quite a summery vibe to it, particularly given the ice cream iconography in the music video, so it’s quite odd that this has only come out now rather than a few months ago. Either way, I don’t think there are set to be any other new singles on the upcoming greatest hits album, and judging by this track that’s probably for the best.

Weezer – ‘The End Of The Game’

Ahead of their fourteenth (yes you read that right, their fourteenth album), Weezer have released a new single ‘The End of the Game‘. Next year’s new album is entitled ‘Van Weezer‘, a name deriving from the Van Halen electric guitar influence in their new material. Despite the album title, most of this track is the classic electro-pop that fans of Weezer are used to, but when there is the sound of electric guitars shredding at random points on the son it feels forced. I don’t know if this style could work for a whole album, especially given the traditionally unenthused-passive sounding vocals of group lead Rivers Cuomo, as electric guitars don’t particularly go with deadpan off-the-wall lyrics, like the pre-chrous of: “I feel like I’ve known you my whole life / You got me crying’ like when Aslan died / Now you’re gone.”