Lockdown has now become some much a part of our lives that it’s not just inspiring new music, it’s outright facilitating it. Take Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong; way back in March the punk-pop crooner, backed by his sons, jumped online to share his cover of the Tommy James and the Shondells track (made famous by Tiffany) I Think We’re Alone Now. He promised he’d carry on dropping a new cover song every week, dubbing the series ‘No Fun Mondays’.

Nine months later and most of us are still stuck indoors, and so Armstrong has bundled together the fourteen covers he completed over the year in a new vinyl-only release of the No Fun Mondays series because, why not? I mean, who doesn’t want to relive the highlights of 2020?

All joking aside, Armstrong has put together an interesting collection, resisting the temptation to include nothing but big, obvious choices and instead diving deep into the history books and unearthing some forgotten gems for a little makeover. Don’t get me wrong, there are some quintessential pop-punk covers here too – the song that started it all opens the album and is a lot of fun, while tracks like Manic Monday (written by Prince for The Bangles) and Kids In America (the Kim Wilde classic) get exactly the treatment you’re expecting, and they sound great.

But there’s plenty of music here that will be entirely new to large swathes of Armstrong’s fans. Amico, originally by Don Backy, is a joyous cacophony delivered entirely in Italian, while You Can’t Put Your Arms Round A Memory (originally by Johnny Thunders) is a beautifully tender affair. Unsurprisingly, Armstrong finds space to include some songs with a political edge too, from John Lennon’s Gimme Some Truth to Police On My Back, first recorded by The Equals but popularised by The Clash, which takes on a particular resonance in 2020.

Overall this a neat collection, with just the right mix of new and old, fresh and classic, hard-hitting and fun. But you’d expect nothing less from a musician with Armstrong’s experience. After all, he’s had plenty of time on his hands.

No Fun Mondays tracklist:

1. I Think We’re Alone Now

2. War Stories

3. Manic Monday

4. Corpus Christi

5. That Thing You Do!

6. Amico

7. You Can’t Put Your Arms Round A Memory

8. Kids In America

9. Not That Way Anymore

10. That’s Rock ‘N’ Roll

11. Gimme Some Truth

12. Whole Wide World

13. Police On My Back

14. A New England

Watch the official lyric video for Police On My Back here.

Author: Joe Sharratt

Joe Sharratt is a writer and journalist based in the UK covering music, literature, sport, and travel.