Green Day may be exploring new territory — namely the "crotch area" — with their latest single "Oh Love," but that's just the beginning. Because on their upcoming trio of albums, they're proudly heading in three different, basically dissimilar directions — at the same time. So while they may be starting below the belt, even they're not sure where they'll end up.

"The last two albums, American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown, sort of bookend each other, and it's the end of that era," frontman Billie Joe Armstrong told MTV News. "And I think with writing these three albums ... we just started writing songs, just getting back to basics, more stripped-down rock and roll. [And] we just started noticing the changes that were happening, so ¡Uno! is more of a power-pop record, >¡Dos! is more of a dirty, party, garage record, and >¡Tré! is sort of this epic ending of the whole thing ... So it's kind of like going around the world in 37 songs with Green Day."

And though they wrote a boatload of songs for the upcoming trilogy (¡Uno! is due September 25), Green Day never really intended to make three albums. They just knew that, after unwinding from a worldwide tour in support of Breakdown, they were feeling more creative than ever — and they didn't want to put any of the new material on the back burner.

"We got back from the last tour, we had done a little bit of demoing in some studios in Europe, but we just got back, [and] we just got in a room, and it really started with us jamming one song," bassist Mike Dirnt said. "We just worked real hard, like five days a week writing songs, and as that progression moved along, eventually we had written some other songs that were a little more irreverent and garage style, a little more Foxboro Hot Tubs vibe to it, and then we had some other songs that were a little more reflective and more of an epic nature. ... But the songs were really good. We wouldn't put 'em out if they weren't."

And while there may be no unifying theme behind the trio of albums, that seems to be precisely the point. Because about the only rule Green Day had while making ¡Uno! ¡Dos! ¡Tré! was that they didn't want to make American Idiot again. They just wanted to sit back and let it rip.

"Each album has its own personality," Dirnt said. "They're not tied together in concept; it's just three different sides of Green Day. ... We definitely never planned to do three albums; it just ended up being fun."