This one's a bit of a biggie. Green Day, famous for setting the world alight with 'Basket Case' in 1994, then again in 2004 in the form of 'American Idiot', are pretty much members of the big league of rock bands. That's right, not 'punk band' - they're sonically just not one anymore. Sorry, die-hard fans. 21st Century Breakdown sees them become a showcase for classic rock principles, though the punk ideals do remain intact: their political commentary, no matter how vaguely researched and postulated it is, still contains the fire from the early days. Under all the pop, there's something that bites. Still, we had to wait five sodding years for it.
Billie Joe Armstrong, Tré Cool and Mike Dirnt represent the studio three-piece with Butch Vig at the helm. Producer of Nirvana's Nevermind, you know it's going to be an unabashed, ridiculously produced piece of overblown music from the off. That is one-hundred percent correct. Piano jingles open the album up, taken straight off 'The Joshua Tree', whilst the rest of the song unravels itself in three acts. This is the template of the entire album: three acts, all consisting of around five to six songs each, swapping musical motifs and echoing lyrics. This makes for a very complex listen, but sadly never really lifts off into the 'deep, enriching' kind. I just couldn't give a fuck about Christian and Gloria, the concept's main protagonists. The American Idiot, I loved to bits: he/she was a middle-finger to Bush, the Establishment, and while completely juvenile it still managed to invigorate a definite 'fuck you' in the throat. Fun yet relevant. The story presented on 21st Century Breakdown does not have that much of a plot, Billie Joe's vocals not clear enough to be heard properly. If he's not going to try, I'm not either.
The first act, Heroes and Cons, contains some gems in the form of '¡Viva La Gloria!', and even the warmly-received first single 'Know Your Enemy' sounds much better as a part in a greater arc. The pace never lets up, even going into the second act Charlatans and Saints. We have the first truly standout song with 'East Jesus Nowhere'. It's a biting remark on the fundamentalist, fanatic dogma of Christianity in America at the moment. This one's surprisingly very snide, and damn funny too given the subject. The Spanish-spiced 'Peacemaker' and anthem-fodder 'Last Of The American Girls' do little to ignite much in the soul but are catchy enough to be considered just above 'filler'. There are eighteen tracks on this LP after all, and the occasional pointless track does crop up but rarely is uninteresting enough to labeled as 'bad'. We do have 'Murder City' however, a nice flurry of rage fuelled vocals and filthy basslines. And the band seem to have nicked a bit from 'Boulevard Of Broken Dreams' (which is a fucking great pop song, by the way) in the solo section of 'Restless Heart Syndrome'. Naughty, naughty.
The final act - Horseshoes and Handgrenades - contains some stronger songs. The eponymous track is a more simplistic blast of pop-punk, which works for it in the context of the bigger tunes surrounding it. '21 Guns' has a great chorus, riveting guitar workout, and musically weighty guitar effects as a bookend. The album does suffer from closing on 'See The Light', which is very by-the-numbers, ending on a big enough bang but not the nuclear explosion the album promises.
You know what this album's problem is? Length. Not of the record as a whole (which clocks in at seventy minutes, which flies by surprisingly fast) but of the individual tracks. Sometimes they go on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and... you get the picture. There are at least ten songs on here that would benefit greatly from having their running time reduced. It seems that grandeur has pierced the trio's consciousness of making a tight song. I can imagine the conversation in the studio: 'this one doesn't have a guitar solo. Put one in! This one here, why is it three-and-a-half minutes instead of five? How are we going to beat Springsteen acting like this? Sort it out!' Green Day should realise they're already a stadium-devouring act. They don't need to inject false pretenses of epicness into the writing to feel more comfortable in the niche they've found themselves in 2004 onwards.
You may believe I have a lot of negative feelings towards this album. That's not true: I enjoy 21st Century Breakdown tremendously. While the tracks by themselves may not stand up to Green Day classics of old on their own, the album listened through as a whole makes for a colourful ride, abundant with energy and humour. A true work of a cartoon punk band (I did not come up with that term, but I wish to hell I did). Where the ride takes me, I have not a clue, but I enjoy it all the same. The question on every listener's lips, though dare none utter it, is was it worth waiting five years for?
Overall - 7.5 / 10
The final act - Horseshoes and Handgrenades - contains some stronger songs. The eponymous track is a more simplistic blast of pop-punk, which works for it in the context of the bigger tunes surrounding it. '21 Guns' has a great chorus, riveting guitar workout, and musically weighty guitar effects as a bookend. The album does suffer from closing on 'See The Light', which is very by-the-numbers, ending on a big enough bang but not the nuclear explosion the album promises.
You know what this album's problem is? Length. Not of the record as a whole (which clocks in at seventy minutes, which flies by surprisingly fast) but of the individual tracks. Sometimes they go on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and... you get the picture. There are at least ten songs on here that would benefit greatly from having their running time reduced. It seems that grandeur has pierced the trio's consciousness of making a tight song. I can imagine the conversation in the studio: 'this one doesn't have a guitar solo. Put one in! This one here, why is it three-and-a-half minutes instead of five? How are we going to beat Springsteen acting like this? Sort it out!' Green Day should realise they're already a stadium-devouring act. They don't need to inject false pretenses of epicness into the writing to feel more comfortable in the niche they've found themselves in 2004 onwards.
You may believe I have a lot of negative feelings towards this album. That's not true: I enjoy 21st Century Breakdown tremendously. While the tracks by themselves may not stand up to Green Day classics of old on their own, the album listened through as a whole makes for a colourful ride, abundant with energy and humour. A true work of a cartoon punk band (I did not come up with that term, but I wish to hell I did). Where the ride takes me, I have not a clue, but I enjoy it all the same. The question on every listener's lips, though dare none utter it, is was it worth waiting five years for?
Overall - 7.5 / 10
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