Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown (Album)
» Green Day announce second shows - July 1, 2009
It's fair to say that the last album from Green Day kind of came from nowhere. Critically acclaimed for its scale and ambition, American Idiot was an epic, politically-charged rock opera which lured back the aging fanbase of their earlier albums and won over a new generation of be-hoodied youth. Riding a swelling wave of anti-Bush sentiment in and outside of their homeland, the punk-rock brats once famous for their musings on bludgery and wanking were suddenly the Voice of a Generation - a title sought purposefully and taken on confidently by Billie Joe Armstrong, unlike Kurt Cobain who a decade earlier was crushed by the burden.
As bouncy and hook-laden as anything they had done before, American Idiot was at once daringly original and radio-friendly. In creating their greatest achievement however, the band had also saddled themselves with a monumental challenge - how the hell do you follow that up? It was a question they chewed on for five years, but finally here we have 21st Century Breakdown. This is the eighth album from Green Day, although in the shadow of its predecessor it feels in many ways like their Difficult Second Album.
With 18 tracks broken into three 'acts', it is clear that they have tried to not only match but top the grand scale of American Idiot. Once again following the rock opera format, the tracks of 21st Century Breakdown work together to tell the story of a young punk couple struggling to find their place as rebels in modern America. Or so I’ve read elsewhere, I must admit that although common names pop up throughout the album this narrative strain didn’t stand out to me. It does have a strong sense of coherence to it however, with musical and lyrical motifs throughout. Perhaps not as obviously laden with radio-friendly singles as the last one, there is still more than enough to have Triple M programmers salivating.
First single Know Your Enemy starts out like The Vines’ Outtathaway!, before launching into what is essentially a three-minute long chorus, sure to have fists pumping and pits moshing all over the world. East Jesus Nowhere is similarly primed for commercial airplay, with a classic Green Day chorus that recalls Holiday and Hitchin a Ride. 21 Guns is the now obligatory Wake Me Up When September Ends/Time of Your Life style sensitive quieter one, where acoustic guitars take the lead for once and Armstrong’s falsetto makes a rare appearance.
So there’s no doubt that they are still doing their bread-and-butter pop punk power-chord thing better than anyone else, but in amongst this standard Green Day fare are a few surprises. Pianos tinker prominently throughout the first act in particular (Viva La Gloria is quite possibly the best song Elton John never wrote), while Peacemaker takes a feverish Spanish flavor. Reveling in the release from the shackles of the standard verse-chorus-verse structure are tracks like 21st Century Breakdown, which moves confidently from familiar punk-rock territory to some Living End-style rockabilly and then a pompous Queen-esque finale, with no time to catch a breath in between.
The listener is propelled through ever-changing and often vastly diverse scenes, but never left to loiter too long in any one; shiny pop tracks like The Static and Last of the American Girls one minute are contrasted with rough-as-guts screamers like Horseshoes and Handgrenades the next. Movements between loud and soft dynamics are handled with the expertise of Pixies and Nirvana, rather than the more self-conscious ‘this is a quiet one/this is a loud one’ manner of Foo Fighters or The Vines. It’s a thrilling ride, but one that never strays too far from a good solid melody; again they’ve managed to push the envelope without disappearing up their own arses.
At just under seventy fairly intense minutes, 21st Century Breakdown is a lot to digest, and a long way from the drive-thru fun of Dookie. But once again, Green Day have taken on the admirably ambitious task and come away victorious. If American Idiot was their The Bends, then this is their OK Computer – perhaps not as many stand-out individual songs, but a stronger and more impactful overall work.
