Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown - A Review

Green Day hold a special place in my heart. When I was 12, I bought a copy of Green Day's 97 album 'Nimrod' after hearing the song 'Hitchin' A Ride' on MTV late at night. I loved every moment of it and it started my love affair with music. Green Day are responsible for the obseesive compulsive muso you now see before you. I own all the Green Day albums (minus the live ones) and they are, without a shadow of a doubt, the best band I have ever seen live. Fact.

This is just to give you the context in which this review is written. From someone who discovered Green Day at 12, writing about their latest release now aged 23. Shit they have been with me almost half my life. Wow, anyway on with the review.

Green Day have always been a fairly predictable band. By 2004 they had released 7 studio albums, 3 of which were giant success stories (Dookie 94, Nimrod 97, American Idiot 04). However these successes were not a smooth progression. Between those 3 success came 2 other albums (Insomniac 95, Warning 00). Both of these albums could have been tagged as the 'tricky second album'. The album that all bands with a hit record try create again, usually failing.

Now I'm not saying they were a complete failure, because if they were then Green Day would have lost their career a long time ago. But what Green Day did exert two of the most common examples of what the 'tricky second album' sounds like. You either end up with a B-Side album (an album cut from the same vein as the success, just not as catchy) or the experimental album (an off-the-cuff gamble some bands take in order to stay edgy). There is a third choice which is to simply have another hit record which is easier said than done.

So what does that make 21st Century Breakdown? Is it a B-side record or an experimental one? Well, honestly, it's both. There are two tracks that show this better than the others. Lead single 'Know Your Enemy' obviously has the anti-American conotations that made 'American Idiot' a success. But if you listen to it carefully. There is something nostalgic about the riff and progression of the song. Then you realise it's from 'Insomniac'. The song sounds like it was stripped from the album 'Insomniac' and given the 'American Idiot' treatment. Which is understandable as both of these albums are written in the shadow of a more fomidable success. And the song 'Peacemaker' almost sounds like they are playing 'Warning's 'Jackass' and 'Misery' over the top of one another.

However these two are probably two of the best on the album, as well as the amazingly catchy 'East Jesus Nowhere'. Most of the rest is easily forgettable Green Day blurs. They seem to zoom past without you registering what they were. Still it does what any Green Day record should do. It's fast, it let's you chant words occasionally, and helps keep you awake (it's never boring)

Although as a life long Green Day fan, I will probably buy it. But I'm in no rush really. I reckon it'll be on sale the first week of summer.

5/10

P.S. 'Horseshoes and Handgrenades' IS a Hives track. Listen to it and you'll know what I mean.