Tommy Collison

I haven’t done an album review on the blog for a good while (possibly never), so here’s one. It’s Green Day’s latest album, 21st Century Breakdown. I’ve been listening to it continuously recently, and it stands up very well as a single album.

This album is the band’s eighth studio album and their second rock opera (after American Idiot in 2005). While there has been a lot of praise for lyrics and instrumentation, the album’s come under fire for being somewhat directionless. I’m inclined to agree with both schools of thought. The album is, for the most part, a great collection of songs, but it doesn’t all come together and form a great package in the same way American Idiot.

Lead-singer Billie Joe Armstrong said this about the album:

“[It's a] snapshot of the era in which we live as we question and try to make sense of the selfish manipulation going on around us, whether it be the government, religion, media or frankly any form of authority”

The album itself contains some great single tracks. Know Your Enemy is wonderfully angry and anthemic — rallying listeners into doing something. I think that’s what Green Day are trying to do, both in American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown — inspiring listeners to get off their asses and participate in some sort of change. It might be somewhat hyperbolic to call both albums “a call to arms under the shadow of the Bush administration”, but it’s certainly on that road.

Admittedly, some of the tracks are instantly forgettable and pass you by (here’s looking at you, Last Night on Earth and Restless Heart Syndrome), but there are some phenomenal tracks that make this album very, very good overall. Props to Know Your Enemy, East Jesus Nowhere, Before the Lobotomy and 21 Guns.

The style that Green Day adopted at the beginning of American Idiot is a very different sound to what came before from the likes of Dookie or Kerplunk! (both albums were released before I was born, but I don’t think that has anything to do with it). It’s a new sound from a new band. A band that’s matured from being doped-up twenty somethings absently fondling their instruments into an excellent band confidently producing a powerful sound.