Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown Review

'21st Century Breakdown' is the kind of album that will suprise you if you know it's reputation before listening to it. A large number of critics and fans make the album sound as if it's awful, disappointing and even 'The album that killed Green Day'. I'd heard all of this before I picked it up, so when I put the album on for the first time I was amazed as track after track passed by and none of them seemed particularly bad. That said, there are several big flaws with the album, so lets see why '21st Century Breakdown' is among most Green Day fans least favourites...

The album is split into three parts, 'Act I - Heroes and Cons' being the one that opens the album (Discounting the inconsequential 'Song of The Century, which is put apart from the acts). The 3 acts detail the story of Christian and Gloria, two renegades trying to survive in an increasingly corrupt modern world, but in terms of music, the structure allows Billie Joe Armstrong to write 3 different 'Album closers' and also to extend the album's length without it feeling as draggy and overstuffed as it otherwise would. 

'Heroes and Cons' is opened in style with '21st Century Breakdown', a multi-part suite similar to 'Jesus of Suburbia' (Though not as good.) with great backing vocals and enough variety to hook the listener in. 'Know Your Enemy', 'Christian's Inferno' and 'Before The Lobotomy' exemplify two of the biggest flaws of the album - It's over-full of similar sounding tracks and some of the lyrics are a bit rubbish. 'Know Your Enemy' and 'Christian's Inferno' are overly repetitive and contain several edgy, vaguely political lines ("Don't be blinded by lies"), while 'Before The Lobotomy' starts well but soon turns into a pop-punk by numbers piece that doesn't stand out. Sandwiched between these though is the fantastic 'Viva la Gloria!' which is a dramatic introduction to the character of Gloria, and the final track of part one, 'Last Night On Earth' is also a great Beatles-esque track to finish the first section of the album on.

Due to containing what I would call the 3 worst songs on the whole album,'Heroes and Cons' is easily the worst 'act' of the album, and 'Act II - Charlatans and Saints' is clearly the best. It starts off with the fantastic trio of 'East Jesus Nowhere', 'Peacemaker' and 'Last Of The American Girls', with the first having some of the best real-world criticism in any Green Day as it aims at the Church, and also containing one of the best choruses on the album. 'Peacemaker' is a spanish-inspired creation that helps to break the monotony of power chords and distorted guitars, while 'Last of The American Girls' is pure pop, with a thudding bassline from Mike Dirnt making it one of the best stand-alone songs on the disc. This opening is followed by 'Murder City', another catchy tune before the final two piano led tracks, 'Viva la Gloria? (Little Girl)' and 'Restless Heart Syndrome'. The former stars off intriguingly before unfortunately developing into another unmemorable, if not bad punk song. 'Restless Heart Syndrome' has a reputation as being a bad Green Day song, but I would argue it's one of the best moments on the album, as it builds up from it's piano-led beginning into an operatic climax. It sounds like nothing Green Day have ever done before or since.

'Act III - Horseshoes and Handgrenades' comes at a point where you don't really feel like you need any more songs on the album, making the opening title track and 'The Static Age' harder to get through than they should be - 'Horseshoes' being the most energetic, raw thing on the LP and 'The Static Age' being another catchy pop-rock jam. '21 Guns' is by far the biggest single here, and stands as one of the most well-known Green day songs in general, all for good reason. The acoustic guitar verses leading into the "boom-boom-tssh" power of the chorus all under a message of disarmament is one of the most compelling and memorable songs on the album - if only you didn't have to get through an hour of other songs to get to it. 'American Eulogy' is unremarkable until about half way through when out of nowhere Mike Dirnt turns up on vocals and the chorus completely changes. The end of the song, when the two choruses run at the same time is maybe the best individual minute of music on the album. The final - and for real this time - track is 'See The Light', which ends the plot on an ambiguous but upbeat note and is also a late showcase for Tre's pounding drumming.

Overall then, '21st  Century Breakdown' is an overlong collection of songs which are largely good. The frustrating thing is that if the album was cut down to being 11 or 12 tracks in length it would not only be a really great album, but would likely have seen much more love from fans. As it is, it doesn't deserve the hatred it gets, and if this is what's turned you away from the album then make sure to give it a try.

8/10

Green Day - Dookie Review

1994 is famously a year where alt-rock ruled - Many of the best albums released in that year game-changing and inspirational alt-rock classics. Weezer's self titled debut, Nine Inch Nails' 'Downward Spiral' and the album that kicked punk-pop into the mainstream - Green Day's 'Dookie'.

Despite the trio of Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool being labelled as sell-outs by a large chunk of their fans for signing to a major label for the release of the album, there is no obvious change in sound from their previous 1991 effort 'Kerplunk', as demonstrated by the explosive first 3 tracks. 'Burnout' opens the album with the message that Armstrong is "Not growing up, just burning out", under power chords and pounding drums that certainly don't sound as exhausted and tired as the narrator. 'Having a Blast' tackles one boy's fantasies of going out in a suicide-bomb where he kills all of his enemies, perfectly demonstrating the frustrated humour that the lyrics hold on every track. This trio is completed with 'Chump', an short angry punk track that is the first of several on the LP to function as a hate-track towards an enemy of the narrator - although in this case the rival hasn't even met the fuming vocalist.

The outro to 'Chump' starts to show glimmers of Mike Dirnt's fantastic bass-work, which is showcased in his best ever bassline on the song that this outo transitions smoothly into - the legendary 'Longview'. Other than having the most well known rock bassline of the 90s other than maybe 'Come as You Are', the song has lyrics musing over masturbation with an explosive, headbanging chorus; pretty much the perfect Green Day song. 'Welcome to Paradise' is a marginally improved version of the 'Kerplunk' song, which would doubtlessly be great for the vast majority of new fans who hadn't heard it before (It's still a great song.), but it doesn't really feel as fresh as the rest of 'Dookie', if only for me personally.

'Pulling Teeth' is a sugary breather between 'Paradise' and before the emblem-of-the-90s itself: 'Basket Case'. This was the song that made Green Day a force to be reckoned with, it was a radio smash in the US and was their first top 10 hit in the UK. Even today, it is still considered by most to be their signature song. With it's instant vocal hook of "Do you have the time... To listen to me whine", and subsequent 3 minutes of accessible pop-punk perfection and with the biggest sing along chorus they created until at least 2005 it's clear to see why it defined it's genre.

'She' manages to avoid being overshadowed through it's quiet verse/ loud chorus dynamic and triumphant backing vocals from Mike Dirnt that even overtake  Armstrong's on the hook. 'Sassafras Roots' is a smaller scale track written by Dirnt and is the closest thing to a love song on the album. Then the final monolith of the album, 'When I Come Around', which bursts through it's simple but iconic guitar riff and bassline. In terms of pure melody it's the highlight of the disc and even has a cool little solo. The song was another huge hit, peaking at number 1 of the US Alternative singles chart.

The next 3 songs are short and vicious, showcasing Tre Cool's breathless drumming. 'Coming Clean' is a study on Armstrong's sexual confusion, 'Emenius Sleepus' is one of the aforementioned hate-tracks, as is 'In The End' - the latter also having an awesome moment of instrumental silence that is the musical equivalent of a-car-shooting-off-a-ramp-and-hanging-in-the-air-for-a-second-before-crashing-back-to-the-road-at-breakneck-speed in the chorus. The closing track 'F.O.D' is the most hateful of all the tracks, although it certainly doesn't initially seem like that from it's quiet, acoustic guitar and lyrics that sound like typical sad-but-polite breakup speak BUT THEN the distortion pedal drops and the gang vocals start and Cool's machine gun percussion kicks off, and it ends the album perfectly in an outburst of long held angst. ('All by Myself' is also tacked onto the end and is really quite charming but also a joke song sung in a silly voice by Cool.)

It seems crazy that an album named after diarrhea could ever bring punk back into the mainstream, but just a single listen to 'Dookie' shows why it was so successful - It's catchy, cohesive and full of energy, as well as huge singles that have maintained popularity up to the present. A true classic.

10/10