In 2004, Green Day redefined what it meant to be a band with a furious and tangible agenda, capitalising on widespread anger at the catastrophic Bush administration in releasing the sublime American Idiot six weeks before his narrow election to a second term in office. Although it failed to bring about a change in government, the six million records the album sold testify to the mass backing the band was able to garner from a public eager for change.
The album was still more impressive coming from a band who were thought to be in a downward spiral after less-than-impressed reactions to 2000 release Warning, with its rock-opera style reinventing both the band and conventional thoughts as to how an album should be structured.
Adopting an ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach, then, Green Day have attempted to go above and beyond in putting out a 18-song epic, and for the most part they more than live up to the hype of an album that has been nearly half a decade in the making. Their usual stock of hooks and melodies that you just can’t get out of your head are present in opener ‘21st Century Breakdown’ and ‘Before The Lobotomy’, while ’21 Guns’ makes ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’ sound like nothing more than a first draft of what has now been achieved five years on.
Some critics will deride this, make no mistake. Many songs (‘Last of the American Girls’ and first single ‘Know Your Enemy’) take a noticeably poppier slant, even further away from the vicious, unbridled punk of Dookie (1994), and the decision to release ‘21st Century Breakdown’ in conjunction with Rupert Murdoch’s notoriously right-wing News International corporation endeared them to no one. But anyone listening to this should remember that some bands are born hyped (Arctic Monkeys), some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them (Beth Ditto).
Green Day have very much achieved their status as genuine legends of the last 20 years in punk rock music on their own, and their fearlessness in throwing wide the doors constraining how music should be arranged and presented deserves enormous praise. ‘21st Century Breakdown’ is a hell of an album, and even sceptics will find something to get their teeth into here.
Four out of five stars
