Review Summary: This is exactly what you would expect from Green Day post-American Idiot
Anyone who knows Green Day knows the story of American Idiot. How it was an epic success in the mainstream world, but an epic upset for longtime fans. Not to suggest that American Idiot isn’t a good album, it was blown out of proportion and the band went into a whole new direction. With that said when Green Day announced the release of their new album 21st Century Breakdown, feelings were very mixed. To die-hard American Idiot fans Green Day could do no wrong, but others wanted the old controversial pop-punk Green Day back.
With promises of a epic album in the mix, the fans patiently awaited. With the first single
Know Your Enemy being release pre-album. Just like with American Idiot the fan base split in two. Some loved the loud repetitive protest song, others didn’t. Anyone with a real ear for music can tell how, average this song is. Its obviously written forcefully and not based off anything in particular unlike Green Days hit song Basket Case which was about Billy Joe Armstrong’s problems with anxiety. Not looking very hopeful for 21st Century Breakdown, it was already looking very commercial.
The album finally dropped and people finally saw what Green Day had been working on for the past couple years. After the introduction song is the title song
21st Century Breakdown. Frankly I was very surprised on how much better this song was compared to the first single. Although better, its still on par with American Idiot, not what the real non-mainstream fans wanted to hear. I was also surprised at the length of the album at 17 tracks including the intro.
Honestly the only song on the album even close to being classic Green Day is
East Jesus Nowhere, which starts out with a radio voice saying “and we can see what a godless nation we have become!” If you haven’t gotten the hint yet, it’s a religious bashing song. Its loud dramatic like one would expect an anti-religion punk rock song to sound, but it suffers the same curse as
Know Your Enemy it feels so forced and cliché compared to old Green Day. This whole album shows that Green Day has been thrust into this mainstream curse, and they are not coming out of it.
As the album progresses it clearly loses its steam midway through with songs like
Static Age and
Restless Heart Syndrome, the ballad of the album, both of these tracks have some of the worst lyrics Armstrong has ever written, the latter of which opens with the lines “I’ve got a really bad disease”. That’s just the bad though. There does happen to be some better songs, like
21 Guns the second single. It’s a low tempo anti-war song that has a good melody, and defiantly the strongest song on the album.
Christians Inferno is also a strong track, with the thundering chorus shouting “Christians Inferno!”.
21st Century Breakdown is pretty much what one might expect from Green Day, post-American Idiot. Their musical talent hasn’t weakened much, but their style as been commercially corrupted by the mainstream. Leaving the songs good, but commercial, just like American Idiot. The length of the album could easily have been fixed by shortening the album to this:
1. 21st Century Breakdown
2. Know Your Enemy
3. Viva La Gloria!
4. Christians Inferno
5. East Jesus Nowhere
6. Peacemaker
7. Last Of The American Girls
8. Viva La Gloria?
9. Horseshoes and Hand Grenades
10. 21 Guns
11. American Eulogy
