How did Green Day go from a shameless 90’s Bay area punk trio to the most relevant rock band in America? It’s a rhetorical question, I know, but there is something truly special about a band capable of making the cultural defining statements of Dookie, American Idiot, and their latest offering (which complements Idiot quite well), 21st Century Breakdown.
On Breakdown, Green Day is truly breaking it down on what it means to be alive in post-Bush America. Billie Joe Armstrong is like a modern day Walter Cronkite, reporting on America’s state of affairs much like Cronkite brought the ugliness of Vietnam directly into Americans living rooms in the 70’s. He is a child of Nixon era America and now he is chronicling the Obama era like he belongs to the ‘class of 13’ as he proudly exclaims.
It’s an ambitious and successful follow-up to Idiot. The album is divided into 3 Acts, Heroes and Cons; Charlatans and Saints; and Horseshoes and Handgrenades. Act III is the weakest of the three but it also features the album’s most enjoyable track, the aforementioned “Horeshoes.” The band connects admirably on at least half of these 18 tracks, making the division of the album into 3 acts function as smoothly as a stage play.
I couldn’t help but think, however, had Green Day eliminated a handful of songs this could be the most consistent, enjoyable rock album of all-time. Either way, if you like good rock music, you will find plenty to like in 21st Century Breakdown.
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