Green Day, 21st Century Breakdown

A New “Century” for a Green Day

In 1994 three snotty, dirty punks released an album named after dog shit. Included on this disc were songs about masturbation, smoking grass, and above all wasted days, nights, and youth. If you were a teenager when these young men came along they spoke for you and through you and ultimately became the soundtrack of countless mains dragged, school buses rode, and beer busts at the moontower, the bonfire, or around the keg.

Ten years later these same punks, less dirty and many times more wealthy and worldly, released an album that became the preeminent piece of protest art against an unpopular war and an even more unpopular president.

Now they are back five years after their masterpiece to capture yet another generation of apathy, anger, and confusion. 21st Century Breakdown comes out during an economic crisis, two American foreign wars, and a new presidential administration elected on promises of change and hope. But the Bay Area bad boys are still dropping dookie from the Bad Year blimp.

So how exactly did Green Day go from snot-nosed sellouts of the punk ideal to the new Biggest Band in the World and Spokesmen of the New Generation? How did they define and then survive the ‘90s with their sanity, sobriety, and commercial appeal still intact? I have no idea, no theories, and could care less. All I know is that they still fuckin’ ROCK.

21st Century Breakdown is Green Day’s follow up to their insanely great and successful anti-Bush ode, American Idiot. While the tracks and tone have changed, the song remains the same. In an age of Ipod singles and ring tones, Green Day remains true to the album ideal and created a cohesive unit that follows the same two characters over 18 tracks and nearly 70 minutes. American Idiot followed Jesus of Suburbia, a disaffected youth in a time of a new conservative movement and a bloody foreign war, and his spiritual advisor/personal demon, St. Jimmy. (Maybe. I’m still not sure I’ve got this right after five years.) 21CB follows the star-crossed lovers, Christian and Gloria, in a New America same as the old America.

If you’re like me, the phrases “concept album” and “rock opera” make you cringe and what really matters is the songs. And they rock. Maybe not as good and they won’t chart as many singles as American Idiot. They’re still really good.

“Know Your Enemy” the initial single carries the first “act” of the disc with its fists-of-fire guitar riffs and pounding drums. “East Jesus Nowhere” rails against dogmatic religious fanatics in the opening lines: “raise your hands now to testify/your confession will be crucified/you’re a sacrificial suicide.” “Horseshoes and Handgrenades” is a good old rock ‘n’ roller that declares that Green Day is “not fuckin’ around!!!” “The Static Age” searches for substance in our information age but “can’t see a thing in the video/can’t hear a sound on the radio.”

So the boys from Dookie might have grown up and gone out into the 21st century world, but they really don’t like what they’ve found. They aren’t the kids they once were ( I guess none of us are) but they still make music just as good, just as fun, and just as loud. Do yourself a favor and “Breakdown.”

4 STARS OUT OF 5

Download These:

“Horseshoes and Handgrenades”
“Know Your Enemy”
“East Jesus Nowhere”
“Before the Lobotomy”