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