Stream The Surprise Debut Album From Billie Joe Armstrong’s New Band The Longshot

Stream The Surprise Debut Album From Billie Joe Armstrong’s New Band The Longshot

Today is a big day for new albums that have come out without a whole lot of advance notice. There’s J. Cole’s new album KOD. There’s stoner metal legends Sleep’s out-of-nowhere return The Sciences. And now there’s also Love Is For Losers, the debut album from Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong’s new band the Longshot.

The Longshot is a mysterious proposition. Before last week, we didn’t know they existed. But last week, they came out with a quick three-song EP, and all three songs are good. And today, they’ve come out with a full 11-song, 32-minute EP.

If Love Is For Losers were a Green Day album, it would be a really good Green Day album, a total comeback move. The album is made up of the sort of bulletproof, hook-dominated pop-punk that Green Day came up making. The songs haven’t been written to display Armstrong’s newfound maturity or to get radio play on what remains of rock radio. There are no ballads here. Instead, this is revved-up, beyond-catchy power-pop, from a guy who knows better than almost anyone else how to make that stuff. Here’s the album stream:

And while we’re at it, here’s director Brendan Walter’s “Love Is For Losers” video, in which Armstrong and his new bandmates play in what looks like an abandoned amusement park. As someone in the YouTube comments points out, it’s our first time in forever seeing Armstrong not wearing eyeliner, which almost looks weird.

The self-released Love Is For Losers is out now.

more from New Music