Review Summary: Let's get naked
Rewind to 2004. Now picture a young Green Day, already popular with music fans thanks to their now 1994 punk rock classic, Dookie, and it's equally successful (commercially successful, that is) predecessors. The gang later hits the studio to record their first new record in nearly half a decade. This record was to be titled "Cigarettes and Valentines" and was to be released later that year. Fast forward a few months after the idea for the album arose. The young punks have finished recording a majority of tracks for the new album and had almost been finished with mixing, when all of a sudden the master tapes for the record are somehow stolen from the recording studio. Following this event, the band members came to the ultimate conclusion of scrapping the project and trying something new instead of attempting to rerecord the album. And thus we have Amercian Idiot, a punk rock concept album crafted in the style of
The Who and various Broadway musicals. Thank God for the guy who stole those tapes.
There are many things to like about this record. One of them being how ambitious it is. Green Day performs in full force on this record, with Mr. Armstrong's strong but simple guitar work and powerful vocals, Mike Dirnt's amazing bass playing, and Tre Cool's powerhouse drumming. However, their skills can get a bit lackluster on some songs, most notably the filler tracks Are We The Waiting and Extraordinary Girl; However, at the end of the day these songs are still an enjoyable and fun time to listen to. Another strong positive of the CD is it's ballads, Homecoming & Jesus Of Suburbia. These tracks, each with a length of about 9 minutes, execute the story of the album in a definitive and ambitious way that make them entertaining throughout their entire running time so that the casual listener isn't bored or tempted to press skip. Each track is also split into five sections that make them feel like you're listening to five different songs, keeping you're ears attention. Another downside is that the album as a whole is quite long, with a length of a little over an hour long. Even though some music fans enjoy listening to long albums, a casual listener probably doesn't want a CD to drag on and get boring.
The length of the CD is also a problem due to the fact that some of the songs on it are paired together, these being Holiday & Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, Are We The Waiting & St. Jimmy, Extraordinary Girl & Letterbomb, and Give Me Novicaine & She's A Rebel, making them overlong. The only songs on this album that aren't paired with another and that aren't ballads are the title track and the closer, Whatsername, both of which are mediocre at best.
Taking a break from the negatives, we have one more positive, and that is the production. Although Rob Cavallo's overly polished production may not fit some listeners taste (this reviewer included), many casual fans and listeners will find it pleasant to hear, which means that it has done its job, considering it's produced specifically to sound good. And taken in right context, the album as a whole sounds pretty damn good. The album has a fair amount of standout songs, including "Jesus Of Suburbia" and "Holiday", the drug-induced "Give Me Novicaine", the first-person fist-clenching "St. Jimmy", the band's longest song "Homecoming" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends" a song about Billie Joe's father, who passed away when he was young.
Green Day's sixth full length studio album and first concept album is plastered with a definitive storyline, well performed instrumentation and vocals, a thick coating of production paint, rebellious and rage-inducing lyrics, and two 9 minute ballads that with everything (good and bad) put together all adds up to create an overall fluid and enjoyable piece of work, despite what some harsh critics and hardcore fans of the band will tell to. Definitely give it a listen. alot of people say Green Day sold out with this album, but they didn't, they just adapted to newer times. Although I would be lying if I said they weren't starting to get too big for their britches.
Recommended Tracks
Jesus Of Suburbia
Holiday
Give Me Novicaine
St. Jimmy
Wake Me Up When September Ends
Homecoming
