.Billie Joe + Norah

Foreverly

In its early days, Green Day sat somewhere between Screeching Weasel and Operation Ivy musically, but Billie Joe Armstrong’s singing and songwriting was unmistakably emo — he wore his teenage heartache and boredom right where Joe Strummer might’ve worn a “Sandinista!” patch. Thus, while Foreverly, Armstrong’s new Everly Brothers-inspired album of down-home duets with Norah Jones, may seem surprising, what the Everlys famously conveyed on saccharine tracks like “Oh So Many Years” (Each night within my lonely room/I cry over you) isn’t far from Green Day’s “At the Library” (What is it about you that I adore/staring across the room).

Foreverly pays tribute to the Everlys’ 1958 classic Songs Our Daddy Taught Us. The result is an intimate, passionate collection of quaint, dusty ballads that can sound cheesy at first but rein in listeners as each slow, careful old-time story unfolds. Despite the Everlys concept, Jones and Armstrong — with a stellar, tasteful backing band — have put together a diverse platter of interesting material: “Who’s Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet?” reaches an almost “How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?” corniness, while the murder ballad “Down in the Willow Garden” is even more menacing than Jones’ 2012 startler “Miriam,” which was arguably as punk as anything Green Day has released. And the relatively upbeat “Longtime Gone,” with its Mazzy Star feel, features both singers claiming you’re gonna be blue/and all alone, as if both a man and a woman are breaking up with you.

Foreverly‘s apex is the timeless misery of “I’m Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail,” which Jones sings alone. Just when her expressive voice seems like it could melt the bars of a cell, both voices join together again, revealing how well Jones and Armstrong’s voices fit together: a punk voice that’s not-so-secretly pop, and a pop voice that’s always transcended classification. (Reprise)

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