Good in a Different Way: 21st Century Breakdown by Green Day

I was born in 1986.

The only music I was subjected to during my first 16 years of life was from the 60s and the 70s.

Modern music wasn't banned or especially looked down on by my parents. It was just that they liked their older stuff, and us kids showed no real interest in anything newer. My own experiences with the 90s at the time (things sometimes played on the bus like the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC) were reason enough for me to stick with the Beatles.

I tell you this to give you an idea of my musical history in relation to 80s and 90s bands with older fans. Such as Green Day.

I got into Green Day along with every other member of my age group with American Idiot, widely regarded by me as the defining album of our generation. I had no concept of the influence of Dookie, and the rise of punk rock. I didn't even like American Idiot the first time I heard it through, still entrenched in Hard Day's Night, Pet Sounds, and Wednesday Morning 3 A.M. as I was.

American Idiot was the first album that made me think about music past the words and into the meaning, opening a world of brilliance to me and breathing new life into all of my music, even off those old vinyl's of my youth. As such, I was terribly excited to learn anything I possibly could about 21st Century Breakdown. I had matured musically and (in theory) mentally, and had finally gotten ahold of the punk rock history I hadn't experienced the first time around.

Lemme tell ya, it's good. But a different kind of good from American Idiot.

Idiot had one hell of a storyline, clearly defined, with multiple characters. You know the story, and it's underlying ideas about America in general, so I won't bore you. But Green Day had to grow with their country. There's no more Bush, and hope is starting to show despite the sudden drop in economy. The world has changed some, and the storytelling had to change with it.

(It sure hasn't helped that Idiot's major hits have been drilled into the brains of the population by overplaying from retarded radio stations that can't take a hint that we might want to hear something different now and then, but that's a rant for another episode...)

21st Century Breakdown has it's characters, and defines them well. But the songs don't really tell a very cohesive story. The album seems more like several songs about the same or similar subjects. But that's ok. It means that Green Day are acknowledging what was done last and that it's time to move on.

Breakdown is, well, broken down into 3 movements: Heroes and Cons, Charlatans and Saints, and Horseshoes and Handgrenades. As far as movements go, they're not especially well defined. "Last Night On Earth" provides a decent exit from Heroes and Cons, if you can stand the weakness of the song (more on that later), and "East Jesus Nowhere" makes a good start to Charlatans and Saints with another radio-static moment. But the movements themselves will probably be forgotten in the mix of the songs themselves. It's sort of like no one cares about the movements, it's just a gimmick to give the album an air of respectability it already had.

The album starts fairly strong, with an introductory vocal (radio-static style) "Song Of The Century" and title song "21st Century Breakdown". Several songs (the title song, "Before The Lobotomy", and "American Eulogy) come very much in the style of Idiot's multiple-movement songs "Jesus of Suburbia" and "Homecoming". Just shorter, and it works well. They give the loose storyline a bit of structure, and are a good nod to the past.

There are some questionable moments. You probably have an opinion on "Know Your Enemy", the first single. I think it's close to the weakest song on the album. It's too repetitive, a bit of a snooze. "Last Night On Earth" is pretty much as rewrite of "Extraordinary Girl" from Idiot, which certainly didn't need to be repeated.

Some unusual decisions seem to feel good though. Green Day is being obvious in their influence in songs like "¿Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl)" ("Hitchin' A Ride" from Nimrod) and "Peacemaker" ("Misery" from Warning). I liked those older songs in the first place, and these new ones are fun in the same vein.

Sometimes Green Day come across as trying too hard. "Restless Heart Syndrome" and "21 Guns" are a clear attempt to bring back the primary glory of Idiot (a la "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends", respectively). Neither of them quite pull it off, but the former suffers for it the most. "21 Guns" benefits from Armstrong's interesting falsetto during the refrain. But that opening guitar is practically cut from "September"...

But, oh! ¡Viva La Gloria! A moving piano part with emotional words and vocals from Billie Joe Armstrong gives way to a quick, pounding, exciting explosion of euphoric expression! It works very well as an unabashed proclamation of love for said Gloria. This sound will probably define Green Day sound for some years to come: an evolved punk, with, yeah, a hint of Idiot. But hey, that's not necessarily bad! ¡Viva La Gloria! hits the nail on the head.

It all starts to wrap up with "American Eulogy", which starts fast-paced with mini-part Mass Hysteria and melds seamlessly into Modern World, which is just as quick, very controlled chaos (it's multiple-part song as mentioned earlier). They meld so well that, at the end of the song, they're being played in conjection, and it just works. Then comes "See The Light", which almost has U2 influences, and that comes off very weird-feeling, especially to end the album. It's a skippable song, and a bit of a miss for the band, landing a fabulous album on slightly awkward footing.

All in all, this is the type of music that helped bring me out of my oldies shell. It's a good way to move past American Idiot without ignoring it or the band's older work entirely. Green Day were in an unusual position to follow up strong after one of the best albums ever, and while it isn't perfect, 21st Century Breakdown does a damn good job.




8.5 Americans out of 10 Idiots


Notable tracks: ¡Viva La Gloria! [5 stars]
Before the Lobotomy [4 stars]
Peacemaker [4 stars]
¿Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl) [4 stars]
21 Guns [4 stars]