Review Summary: Another "punk rock opera" by Green Day laced with pianos and violins.
Green Day hit it big with their 1994 album, Dookie. It's an album filled with songs about growing up, masturbation and girls, the album itself being named after poop. They were just known as 3 punk brats from southern california.
As they matured, their music clearly has too. In 1999, Green Day released the album Warning. The lyrics on this album were more about religion and polotics, most of what Green Day writes about today. The release of Warning pretty much foreshadowed their next album, American Idiot. When released, the album was billed a "punk rock opera" following the life of the fictional Jesus of Suburbia. The release of this album was something totally different for Green Day and even punk rock at the time. American Idiot tackles subjects such as the war in Iraq and President Bush. There was a span of five years between American Idiot and Green Day's latest album 21st Century Breakdown.
Breakdown follows pretty much the same format of American Idiot, but in this case it follows the lives of Christian and Gloria, two people struggling to survive in the 1st part of the century. The album is broken down into three acts: Heroes and Cons, Charlatans and Saints, and Horshoes and Handgrenades.
21st Century Breakdown starts off strong with the title track. The song starts off with piano and guitars far off in the distance, the guitars get closer and closer and then the album begins. The track is essentially the prolougue to the story, but as the album goes on, you seem to lose sight of it. The album is drenched in piano intros and digital effects all going for the sound of an old school record. It is not hard to see that Green Day used classic rock as a heavy inspiration for this album. You are finally introdiced to Gloria in track nummber 4, "Viva La Gloria". The song starts off with piano and violin with Billie's vocals soft and old timey. It then breaks out into a full on rock ballad filled with "Oooooohs" in the distance and strong drumming and bass. In track 6, you are introdiced to Christian. (Christian's Inferno). The strong starts off with an electronical percussion filled intro, with Billie's voice again sounding far off in the distance. The song is filled with loads of bass and guitar with meniacal laughs in the background. Sounding much like alot of songs on the album with the chorus repeated over and over again.
The next act starts off with "East jesus Nowhere". Drenched in classic sounding guitars and vocals. It is one of the stronger songs on the album kind of sounding like a throwback to american idiot. The only other song in this act that really stands out is "Murder City". It is one of the only songs on the album that you can hear real passion in Billie's voice, showing his range of vocal abilities.
The final act starts off with "Horshoes and Handgrenades", sounding pretty much like every other forgettable track on the album. Then you hear 21 guns which is really one of the best things to come off the album. Billie's voice is soft and kind of soothing, you hear the guitars in the distance, and then things start to get a little faster and stronger with the chorus. Next, is american eulogy which is a repeat of the intro to the album with an extra for minutes of chanting "Mass hysteria, mass hysteria" and "I don't wanna live in the modern age, I don't wanna live in the modern age" over and over. The final track on the album is "See the Light" which ends the album with a hopeful message that times can't be bad forever you just have to find a way out of the darkness.
All in all the album's story is very hard to follow and there is nothing to tie the entire story together. Green Day tried to do the exact same thing they did on American Idiot, but the really did not ace it this time. Hopefully for their next album they take the whole polotics, religion thing down a few notches. And just write the straight foward rock album where they can display their talents without all of the digital effects.
