It debuted at number nine on the US Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 69,000 copies in the United States, a low for the band, becoming their first album since Nimrod (1997) not to sell 100,000 records in its first week.

[citation needed] A trailer for the album was released on June 21, 2012, on the band's YouTube channel, it included a preview of the song "Fuck Time".

[10] A preview of the song "Lazy Bones" was featured in a special Green Day themed level pack of Angry Birds Friends.

Green Day also released previews of the songs "Stray Heart", "Makeout Party", "Wild One", "Fuck Time", "Lady Cobra" and "Nightlife" during an interview on BBC Radio 1.

[12] The songs "Stop When the Red Lights Flash", "Amy" and "Nightlife" were featured on the episode "Unspoken" of CSI: NY alongside "Kill the DJ" from ¡Uno!

An official trailer was released on October 15 and featured previews of "Stop When the Red Lights Flash", "Fuck Time", and "Stray Heart".

It features a black-and-white cutout of bassist Mike Dirnt, with his eyes crossed-out with pink X's, on a geometric, orange background.

"[18] Randall Roberts of the Los Angeles Times commended Green Day for "allowing in a much wider range of sounds and styles", and found the album "way more impressive than the rudimentary math of Uno!

[20] Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone wrote that Green Day "harness[es] the sound of immolating, teenage-wasteland lust for an album with a distinct sense of life coming off the rails".

[24] Scott Heisel of the Alternative Press felt that, apart from "Fuck Time" and "Nightlife", the album is "so focused and straightforward", and commented that despite some "rote" lyrics, Green Day "function[s] at their best with hook-filled songs that are typically three minutes or less.

"[1] Phil Mongredien of The Observer called the album "oddly leaden and largely witless", and criticized the band for "flailing ever further from the pop nous that has underscored their finest moments".

"[22] Slant Magazine's Jonathan Keefe wrote similarly, "only a handful of its tracks are truly essential additions to the Green Day catalogue.

"[4] Mark Roche of State felt that it "has as many disappointing tracks as it does impressive ones" and observed from Green Day "the attempt to forge modern expectations with old school sensibility, even if it doesn't always work.

[29] Jon Young of Spin felt that Armstrong "might want to abandon" his "juvenile posturing ... even the most seductive rascals lose their boyish allure eventually.

"[25] Kyle Anderson from Entertainment Weekly stated "scratches the party-till-you-puke surface and there's plenty of minor-key darkness lurking below, as in the bleary-eyed 'Lazy Bones' and the lounge- lizard groove propping up 'Nightlife'.