Foxboro Hot Tubs (Green Day) - Stop Drop and Roll

Rating:

* * * *

It could be seen as the new album by Green Day. However, official word has it that Foxboro Hot Tubs is a "secret side project". Well the secret is well and truly out. This band is made up of the American punk band's core members, Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals/guitar), Tre Cool (drums), and Mike Dirnt (bass), with a few other musician mates.

Who knows, maybe they couldn't face having to follow up 2004's blazing concept album

American Idiot

, which renewed the band's popularity and became its second most popular long player behind 1994's

Dookie

. However, in the past the trio have also released songs under the name The Network.

The thing is, the 12 short, sharp and, at times, tender songs on

Stop Drop and Roll!!!

could have been released under the Green Day name and viewed as a perfect diversion from the punk rock masterstroke of

American Idiot

. Even though the new album is inspired by 60s garage rock it doesn't sound out of place in the band's canon of pop punk albums.

The jangly jaunt of songs like

Mother Mary

and

She's A Saint Not A Celebrity

are littered with rousing "bah, bah bahs" and "woo woos",

Ruby Room

has squealing psychedelic keyboards, and the floating sweetness of

Red Tide

is reminiscent of the Raconteurs' material composed by Brendan Benson rather than Jack White.

For Green Day purists there are tracks like

Sally

and

Broadway

which mixes a swirling Kinks-styled influence  with the staunch bounce and superstar riffing of old.

The album's weakest moments are the repetitive

Alligator

(a rip-off of the Kinks'

You Really Got Me

or the Cult's

Wildflower

depending on what you're into) and

The Pedestrian

, which is one of those plodders that is annoyingly catchy and destined to be a future single.

Apart from those two, this is the sound of ageing punk rockers - Armstrong, Cool, and Dirnt are all 35 - growing old with musical dignity. They might be looking back to the classic sounds of the 60s for inspiration, and while they don't exactly push things forward, they keep kicking out the jams and inject fresh potency and a new twist into modern-day punk rock.

Scott Kara