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green day's 'american idiot' reviews:


September 20, 2004
Wow, What an 'Idiot'!
By Lorraine Ali
Newsweek, U.S. Edition

It's not easy growing older when immaturity is your shtik. Green Day were MTV's class clowns for much of the '90s. They played a kind of ding-dong-ditch--demanding your attention by annoying the hell out of you. They replaced punk's hard-core social rebellion with soft-core potty humor, making "Dookie," "Nimrod" and other CDs classics among Slurpee-chugging chuckleheads.

Green Day's members are all older than 30 now. If the title of their first studio album in almost four years, "American Idiot," suggests yet another adolescent spit-wad, don't be fooled. This is one of the best rock albums and the biggest surprise of the year—a punk-rock opera and one of the only mainstream offerings to really address the emotional, moral and political confusion of our times. The 19 tracks, two of which are more than nine minutes long, tell of a suburban kid's stumbling toward adulthood and contending with war, "one nation controlled by the media," his divorced parents, the neighborhood drug dealer and even the local 7-Eleven. As a singer, Billie Joe Armstrong is no D'Angelo, but he can nail frustration, numbness and innocence, as well as the loss of it. On the title track, he paints the picture of a disillusioned kid: "Maybe I am the faggot, America/I'm not part of a redneck agenda." By the album's close, that kid has turned into a self-centered, middle-aged loser: "I got a kid in New York and a kid in the Bay/I haven't drank or smoked nothin' in over 22 days."

Musically, the band finally ventures beyond the safety of three-chord jingles and tries out some sophisticated arrangements, swinging from Cheap Trick-style pop to haunting acoustic moments. The very un-Green Day trimmings—bells, hand claps, tambourines and harmonious backing vocals—add even more depth. But the big news is that Green Day now know when to pull back and let the most understated moments seep in. They have dropped their protective shield of wacky irony, so that even the straight-ahead punk seems like fresh territory. A lot can go wrong when you stop pretending you don't care. Growing up is the most daring move this band's ever made.

Friday, September 17, 2004
Ambitious 'Idiot' shines
By DARRYL STERDAN
Winnipeg Sun
AMERICAN IDIOT
Green Day (Reprise/Warner)

"Don't want to be an American idiot," declares Billie Joe Armstrong. Too late, bucko.

Hey, we love Green Day as much as the next aging punk fan -- but come on, that's like Michael Jackson asking people not to call him wacko. If anything, these guys are the original American idiots.

With albums like Dookie and songs like Basket Case, Green Day kickstarted today's whole underachieving pop-punk scene. No Green Day, no Sum 41. No Gob. No Good Charlotte. No wonder Billie Joe is worried about his rep.

Of course, this isn't new for Armstrong. Ever since the ballad Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) became a crossover hit, he's been slowly but surely moving his music in a more mature and melodic direction, trying to live down his past, live up to his potential and earn a little respect. Lately, the guy seems so attached to his acoustic guitar, you'd almost think he wants to be Dylan.

Not quite. Actually, he wants to be Pete Townshend. And American Idiot is his Quadrophenia -- as in a concept album/rock opera. Yes, rock opera. With a loose storyline, a nostalgic theme and a narrative arc.

With running characters named Jesus of Suburbia, St. Jimmy and Whatsername. And with multi-part epic songs about apathy, angst, ambition and the state of the American dream in today's "alien nation." (It's probably about more than that, but that's mostly what we could make out -- we didn't get a lyric sheet with our high-security advance copy, and Billie Joe isn't exactly the poster boy for enunciation.)

Ambitious? Definitely. High-concept? Totally. But American Idiot is neither as intimidating nor as pretentious as it sounds. Obviously, this 57-minute set is the most varied and complex disc of the band's career, with influences that veer from Mott the Hoople glam grandeur to Meat Loaf camp, from Celtic funerals to Caribbean country, from power-pop to The Police's Every Breath You Take.

But at the same time, American Idiot is also the punkiest disc they've recorded in years. Sure, a couple of these 13 songs are nine minutes long. But that's only because they're made up of a handful of two-minute songs sandwiched together, a la The Who's A Quick One, While He's Away. And most of those two-minute songs are made up of the staccato power chords, choppy beats, snotnosed vocals and inescapable hooks that define classic Green Day.

The leadoff title track and first single might be the crunchiest and catchiest song Armstrong has penned in a decade. But the sprinting, Clash-inspired punk of St. Jimmy and the spiky churn of Letterbomb aren't too far behind. Even arena-sized rockers like the anthemic Are We the Waiting pack a decent musical punch, while Bic-lighter singalongs like the Good Riddance sequel Wake Me Up When September Ends and Boulevard of Broken Dreams deliver a decidedly potent emotional wallop.

Ultimately, how solidly it connects -- not how high it aims -- is what makes the disc so appealing. Despite Armstrong's aspirations, American Idiot is not some freeze-dried, overwritten piece of technical perfection. Rather, it's big and messy and risky; quirky and unpredictable and audacious; it wears its heart on its sleeve, climbs out on a limb and isn't afraid to fall on its face. And we don't know about you, but we'll take that over boring perfection any day.

All in all, pretty good for an idiot.

Friday, September 24, 2004
Green Day takes aim at post-9/11 world in ambitious album
By Doug Pullen
THE FLINT JOURNAL
"American Idiot" (Reprise)
Green Day

With the brilliant, episodic "American Idiot," the band that named its 1994 breakthrough album for fecal matter has delivered one of the truly great rock albums of the year, reawakening the sleeping, cathartic giant that is punk rock in the process.

"American Idiot" is a 13-song cycle, or concept album as we used to call them, that is breathtaking in its sonic scope and cautionary in tone; sort of an expose of the dark underbelly of American society - suburbia, in particular - that's been forgotten among the din of war drums and loud-mouthed talk show hosts.

It is that world, where messianic protagonist Jesus of Suburbia (the subject of one of the album's two suite-like, nine-minute songs) struggles for survival, that Green Day knows best. It's a world where conformity rubs out individuality, boredom kills passion and lovelessness breeds hate and kills hope.

It's a pretty sobering message, set amidst an unlikely love triangle, but it's their response to a post-Sept. 11 world where the rich get richer, the powerful more powerful and corporate-owned mass media work society like a massive sedative. "Does anyone care/if nobody cares," singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong asks during the episodic "Homecoming."

"Idiot's" as ambitious musically as it is lyrically, with Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre' Cool evoking the ghosts of punk greats past (early Who, Clash, Ramones and Sex Pistols) while sounding thorougly contemporary. The band has never sounded more assured as its does do on "Idiot," navigating its heady mix of styles, tempos, melodies and harmonies (check out the keening ballads "Wake Me Up When September Ends" and the narcotic "Give Me Novocaine").

"American Idiot" is a rock opera for the tired, the poor and huddled, seething masses, but you don't have to fit that description to appreciate it.

Sunday, October 03, 2004
QUICK TAKE
By Heather Whitney
JOURNAL READER
THE FLINT JOURNAL
Green Day
Album: "American Idiot" (Reprise)
Grade: A-

Nobody thought that Green Day would be around long enough to even think about doing something as crazy as a punk-rock opera, let alone that the band would actually do it. But it has, and the result isn't half-bad.

Self-indulgent at its worst, positively brilliant at times, "American Idiot" borrows liberally from all of its genre that has gone before, but it still manages to sound fresh. Standout tracks include "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," "Extraordinary Girl" and the title song. The album is best listened to as a whole experience, however, not for its individual pieces.

October 3, 2004
Sound Judgement
By Tom Moon, Philadelphia Inquirer
DETROIT FREE PRESS
Green Day -- "American Idiot"(Reprise)
THREE STARS out of four stars

In its latest, highly professionalized iteration, punk isn't terribly ambitious. It's a haven for sneering attitude jockeys and canny hook recyclers. The veteran Northern California trio Green Day seeks to correct this by offering a bloated, old-fashioned concept album.

The disc's often entertaining, diffuse indictment of suburban consumer culture builds on the band's insinuating melodies sung in a near-furious wail, incorporating such touches as surf-rock harmonies and lilting piano chords.

Our story follows the life of an ordinary misfit, St. Jimmy, who struggles with questions about conformity and individuality, if not right and wrong. The band sometimes tries too hard to impose narrative continuity, and only one of the two extended suites, the nine-minute whirlwind "Jesus of Suburbia,"gets airborne, largely thanks to singer Billie Joe Armstrong's catchy refrains.

Still, the best stuff -- "Are We the Waiting," "St. Jimmy," "Letterbomb"-- are blasts of energetic songcraft that work just fine without the conceptual baggage.

Friday, September 24, 2004
CD Reviews
By Adam Graham
THE DETROIT NEWS
Green Day, "American Idiot" (Reprise)
GRADE: A

"Don’t want to be an American idiot," sneers Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong at the opening of the band’s sprawling rock opera "American Idiot," and immediately it’s clear this is a revitalized, reinvigorated Green Day — not the same band who gave us 2000’s meandering "Warning." Culling inspiration from the nation’s rocky political climate, Green Day aims higher than it ever has before — the album includes two five-part operettas, "Jesus of Suburbia" and "Homecoming" — and turns in an epic tale full of spitfire (the title track), angst ("Holiday"), regret ("Whatsername") and loss (the gorgeous "Wake Me Up When September Ends"). With "American Idiot," Green Day ups the ante for the entire pop-punk genre it helped create with 1994’s "Dookie." One of the year’s best, "American Idiot" is an American beauty.

September 24th, 2004
Johnny Loftus
PITCHFORKMEDIA.COM
American Idiot [Reprise; 2004]
Green Day
Rating: 7.2

Green Day were always innately suburban. THC and apathy themed their 1994 single "Longview"; their breakthrough album, Dookie, was a precocious jumble of power chords and smart aleck prurience, a blend of The Descendents and flinty Buzzcockian spark. They didn't have any answers-- they just wanted weed and entitlement. That cul de sac selfishness and bratty pose carried through to the sugar-pap mallpunks Green Day spawned on the backslide of the 90s; unfortunately, the trio's undeniable early flair for songcraft did not.

In 1999, pop-punk exploded with the arrival of Blink-182's Enema of the State, and the brand gleefully deteriorated from there, bottoming out in the young and hopeless days of a dollar-store post-millennium, where the suburban trash culture that Billie Joe Armstrong once dismissively skewered has blended dangerously with a shifty political climate, causing volatile upheavals in blue collar comedy and bicameral nimrods. Now Green Day are back to pull the pin on the grenade.

2000's Warning only scored the band two modern rock hits, and in contrast to the million-selling marks of previous records, was something of a commercial flop. By this point, their hit-making, image-cultivating offspring had bid them good riddance, and those disillusioned by Green Day's populist stature were no longer listening. If they had been, they'd have heard some of the grit and dynamics that gave birth to a much wider sonic palette on American Idiot, the band's first album since, and unquestionably their most ambitious to date.

As a songwriter, Armstrong's penchant for economy is still present-- he'll never be a wordsmith or a magic melody maker. But Idiot's slicing power chordage reaches to Green Day's old English and Cali punk influences with tingling fingers, adds acoustic instruments without sounding forced or contrived, and lyrically grapples with the cultural predicaments and awkward shittiness of "subliminal mind-fuck America," circa 2004: "Now everybody do the propaganda/ And sing along in the age of paranoia." Armstrong delivers the title track couplet like a command at the revolution day sock-hop, and its instrumental viciousness is enough to shatter punchbowl glass.

Like Bad Religion, whose recent The Empire Strikes First was not only a reaction to U.S. politics and culture post-9/11, but a powerful return to cynical form, Green Day's dissent and frustration has inspired a new strength of craft in them as well. Armstrong's frustration comes out in seething anger: The ragged, rousing "Letterbomb" is both a melodic powder keg and a blaring bullhorn promoting the destruction of complacency, while the album's title track is energizing and provoking in the way effective punk revivalism should be.

"Nobody cares," Armstrong screams shrilly in "Homecoming", one of the album's two extended set pieces, and the line gets at American Idiot's greatest feat, besides its revitalization of Green Day's songwriting. Rather than preach, it digs out the fuse buried under mountains of 7-Eleven styrofoam trash, the cultural livewire that's grown cold in the shadow of strip-mall economics. Armstrong's characters are just misunderstood and disaffected individuals, told to get lost by a nation of fair and balanced sitcom watchers. They're apathetic suburbanite kids, grown up to find that life in the longview sucks.

"Jesus of Suburbia" and the accompanying epic "Homecoming" are American Idiot's summarizing ideological and musical statements. Bookends, they respectively establish and bitterly conclude the record's storyline. Musically, they roll rapid-fire through vignettes of enormous drum fill rock, plaintive piano, Johnny Rotten impressions, and surprisingly strong harmonies. "Suburbia" references the melodies of "All the Young Dudes" and "Ring of Fire"; "Homecoming" surveys both the Ramones and the Police's "Born in the 50s"; and both songs owe their form and pacing to The Who. The album does drag on occasion-- the labored pacing of "Wake Me Up When September Ends" is a little too much, the price of ambition. But then there's "She's a Rebel", a simplistically perfect anthem of the sort the band's vapid followers (or their handlers) would likely muck up with string sections.

For all its grandiosity, American Idiot keeps its mood and method deliberately, tenaciously, and angrily on point. Music in 2004 is full of well-meaning but pan-flashing sloganeers whose tirades against the government-- whether right or wrong-- are ultimately flat, with an overarching sense that what they're saying comes packaged with a spoil date of November '04. Though they do fling their share of surface insults, Green Day frequently look deeper here, not just railing against the political climate, but also striving to show how that climate has negatively impacted American culture. Ultimately, American Idiot screams at us to do something, anything-- a wake-up call from those were once shared our apathy.

September 30, 2004
ROB SHEFFIELD
Rolling STONE
American Idiot
Green Day
Three and a half stars

Tell the truth: did anybody think Green Day would still be around in 2004? Ten years ago, when they blew up into the hot summer band of 1994, they were snotty little Berkeley, California, punk kids who sounded ready to pogo off the face of the earth in three-chord tantrums such as "Basket Case." Between Billie Joe Armstrong's adenoidal snarl and Tre Cool's maniac drums, Green Day seemed like a Saturday-morning-cartoon version of The Young Ones, three cheeky monkeys who came to raid the bar and disappear. But here they are with American Idiot: a fifty-seven-minute politically charged epic depicting a character named Jesus of Suburbia as he suffers through the decline and fall of the American dream. And all this from the boys who brought you Dookie.
American Idiot is the kind of old-school rock opera that went out of style when Keith Moon still had a valid driver's license, in the tradition of the Who's Tommy, Yes' Relayer or Styx's Kilroy Was Here. Since Green Day are punk rockers, they obviously have a specific model in mind: Hosker Do's 1984 Zen Arcade, which showed how a street-level hardcore band could play around with storytelling without diluting the primal anger of the music. On American Idiot, the thirteen tracks segue together, expanding into piano balladry and acoustic country shuffles. The big statement "Jesus of Suburbia" is a nine-minute five-part suite, with Roman-numeral chapters including "City of the Damned," "Dearly Beloved" and "Tales of Another Broken Home."

American Idiot could have been a mess; in fact, it is a mess. The plot has characters with names such as St. Jimmy and Whatsername, young rebels who end up on the "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." But the individual tunes are tough and punchy enough to work on their own. You can guess who the "American Idiot" is in the bang-up title tune, as Armstrong rages against the "subliminal mind-fuck America" of the George W. Bush era: "Welcome to a new kind of tension/All across the alien nation." Green Day have always swiped licks from the Clash, even back when they were still singing about high school shrinks and whores, so it makes sense for them to come on like Joe Strummer. The other Clash flashback is "Are We the Waiting," a grandiose ballad evoking Side Three of London Calling. "Wake Me Up When September Ends" is an acoustic power ballad, a sadder, more adult sequel to "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)." Even better, there are punk ravers such as "Give Me Novocaine," "Extraordinary Girl" and "Letterbomb," which bites off a big juicy chunk of the Cheap Trick oldie "She's Tight."

Since rock operas are self-conscious and pompous beasts by definition, Green Day obligingly cram all their bad ideas into one monstrously awful track, the nine-minute "Homecoming," which sounds like the Who's "A Quick One While He's Away" without any of the funny parts. But aside from that, Idiot does a fine job of revving up the basic Green Day conceit, adding emotional flavor to top-shelf Armstrong songs. They don't skimp on basic tunefulness -- not even in the other big nine-minute track, "Jesus of Suburbia," which packs in punk thrash, naked piano, glockenspiel, Beach Boys harmonies and a Springsteen-style production number about a 7-Eleven parking lot where there are some mystical goings-down indeed. Against all odds, Green Day have found a way to hit their thirties without either betraying their original spirit or falling on their faces. Good Charlotte, you better be taking notes.

20th September 2004
Richard Banks
bbc.co.uk
American Idiot (Reprise)
Green Day

Listening to Green Day's rendition of Queen's "We Are The Champions" at Reading Festival this year, it seemed unimaginable that the same trio of hyperactive upstarts responsible for 1994's Dookie could take on stadium rock and get away with it. But, after listening to American Idiot, it makes perfect sense for the Californian punks to adopt Freddie Mercury's rally call for their own cause; if ever there were a time for the suburbs of America to unite against ennui and apathy, it seems, that time is now. Power to the people...

That, essentially, is the crux of American Idiot, Green Day's seventh studio album. Four years in the making, it's the story of the alienated, de-motivated Average Joe living under Bush's administration and the American media. 'Where have all the riots gone?' frontman Billy Joe Armstrong sings, '...the television's an obstructionist.' As far as content is concerned then, the album's political discontent is nothing new; topical, sure, and undoubtedly poetic, but not groundbreaking.

In terms of shape and form however, American Idiot takes an audacious leap from today's pack of punk-poppers. It's a narrative driven 'concept' album framed by two nine-minute, five-part tracks. Rather like T.S. Eliot's epic modernist poem The Waste Land, the album's fragmentary, hazy story revolves around several enigmatic characters, held together by themes and images that recur throughout its thirteen songs. The tales of "Jesus of Suburbia", "St. Jimmy" and "Whatsername" are loosely woven together, united by 'rage and love'.

Musically, Green Day have matured beyond belief since their debut LP, 39/Smooth (1990). Their trademark power-chord beef and manic drumming may now be tempered from time to time by the sound of church bells, piano and glockenspiel(!), but the band have never sounded so damn vast. "Are We The Waiting" resounds with jaw-dropping, eye-watering beauty, while the centrepiece harmony four minutes into "Jesus Of Suburbia" sends an inspirational shiver up the spine. In fact, only on "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" do Green Day trip up - exchange Billy Joe's adenoidal vocal for Liam Gallagher's and the track could easily belong to Oasis.

This isn't the first time that punk-rock has transcended its three chord, two-minute boundaries. Sew together American Idiots two nine-minute bookends and you'll equal NOFX's 18-minute epic The Decline (1999). Nevertheless, this is truly inventive and emotive stuff, and arguably Green Day's best work to date. Champions, indeed.

September 21, 2004
Reviews
EONLINE.com
American Idiot
Green Day
B+

After using their music primarily as a way to hurl around jokes about masturbation for the past decade, the members of Green Day have now decided they want to be taken seriously. The long-awaited follow-up to 2000's Warning is billed as an elaborate rock opera chronicling the story of a young man coming of age in a time of turmoil. The punks prove adept at capturing the vibe and are able to broaden their style to tell the tale with power ballads like "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and the nine-minute "Jesus of Suburbia." Oh, and there's still plenty of spunk in to be found in this Sgt. Pepper-lite. Just don't expect anybody to take this to Broadway anytime soon.

September 21, 2004
CD Releases
Keith Carman
CHARTATTACK.com
American Idiot (Warner)
GREEN DAY

It’s been a long time in the making and those over 20 saw it coming a mile away. Green Day’s earliest albums paid homage to the likes of The Clash and The Ramones, but there was always a deeper adoration of classic, windmill-inducing rock aching to rise to the surface. Enter American Idiot, the album where that influence finally breaks through. Many will call this Green Day’s statement about America’s political struggles, but those who truly understand what these SoCal pop-punkers are about will instantly recognize this concept album as a blatant tribute to The Who’s epic movements Tommy and Quadrophenia. From the endless operatic segues and chorusless tunes to the returning characters and thematic elements, this reeks (positively, of course) of Pete Townshend. As powerful and catchy as it is deep and experimental, the only hesitation is seeing if today’s ADD-ing youth will stick around long enough to catch the drift.

September 24, 2004
Music Review
EW.com
American Idiot
B+

From signing with a major to pioneering the mosh-pit ballad, Green Day have never hidden their ambition. American Idiot, which tells the sagas of two characters (the television-glazed Jesus of Suburbia and the more nihilistic St. Jimmy) as both struggle through a war-torn world and an ''information age of hysteria,'' is a particularly big leap. The album adheres to the tenets of rock operas dating back to Tommy: songs with multiple sections, lyrical darts aimed at the Man, and story that periodically makes no sense. A girl enters and leaves, and one of the men -- who may be the same person -- dies and returns ''home,'' wherever that is.

All of which should make anyone want to hole up with an Ramones album. But Green Day -- namely, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong -- make the journey entertaining enough. At various times, American Idiot evokes football-game chants, '50s greaser rock, military marches, classic rock (hints of ''Strawberry Fields Forever'' and ''All the Young Dudes''), and the band's own past (''Wake Me Up When September Ends,'' an elegiac bookend to their own ''Good Riddance [Time of Your Life]''). As often happens with concept albums, the disc tends to rely on lyrics over music, so some of the songs are forgettable. But Green Day are now slinging mud not at their audience but at America's pumped-up militaryindustrial complex -- where ''a flag [is] wrapped around a score of men'' and war rages ''from Anaheim to the Middle East'' -- without losing their bratty humor or power chords.

October 1, 2004
CD Reviews: Green Day's "American Idiot"
Tim Collie
SUN-SENTINEL.com
Green Day: American Idiot (Reprise).

Just a year ago, Green Day looked like a nostalgia act. Its last studio album felt tired and overproduced, and the requisite greatest-hits album had been dispensed with. The California trio had the definitive '90s prom song in Good Riddance (Time of Your Life), a tour-worthy back catalog and heirs apparent in the punk-pop bands New Found Glory and Good Charlotte.

But now comes American Idiot, the band's best album ever -- a politically angry, culturally dark project that manages to channel Green Day's melodic angst in wildly new directions. There are pianos, horns, even a glockenspiel. Singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong calls the album a "rock opera," inviting comparison to the Who's Tommy. But Idiot's masterpiece, a nine-minute street symphony called Jesus of Suburbia, is more an update of Bruce Springsteen epics such as Jungleland and Backstreets.

Like Springsteen, Green Day's members are coastal boys, rooted in the boxy houses, strip malls and neon grime of the American Levittowns that stretch from Asbury Park to Redondo Beach. There is no shortage of references to lost highways and "boulevards of broken dreams" on Idiot. But Springsteen didn't deal with Vietnam until the Reagan administration, whereas several of Armstrong's new songs -- including the title track, which refers to a "redneck agenda" -- are pre-election grenades tossed at the Republicans and the current war in Iraq.

On the snappy Holiday, Armstrong sings: "Zieg heil to the president gasman/ Bombs away is your punishment/ Pulverize the Eiffel Towers/ Who criticize your government." It's not Dylan, but Green Day never saw lit majors as a target audience. It's the kids from Redondo and Asbury, many of whom are probably serving in Iraq, who will be shouting along with this album through Election Day and beyond.

7th October 2004
Reviews
Paul
PUNKTASTIC.com
4 stars out of 5

What else is there to say about Green Day that hasn't already been said? Ever since 'Dookie' blasted through 10-million CD players, Billie Joe, Tre and Mike have walked along a path paved in gold. Gold records that is, for every single one of their recent albums has sold by the proverbial bucketload. 'Insomniac' may not have been the same commercial success of its predecessor, but follow-up 'Nimrod' is every bit as good. That leaves us with the curveball 'Warning', a record which surprised many for its un-Green Day like tendancies. It was as if Mr Armstrong suddenly became Elvis Costello or something. So here we are, present day, and Green Day are back. But is 'American Idiot' a return to punk form or Warning Mk II?

In truth it's a mish-mash of both. In sound alone, this would have been the easier step for fans to take rather than the sudden jump from the spite-filled gob of 'Nimrod' to the pop sensibilities of 'Warning'. The tracks here swap and change between the faster, punkier efforts ('St Jimmy' and 'American Idiot' are blasts of old), to the quieter, more considered 'Holiday'. So we've established that the sound is a little less frightening at first than the last record. Good. But, wait, what's this? A punk rock...opera...

Yes folks, here's the twist. The George W baiting title track aside (which, let's be honest, is a fantastic pop-punk song), this is the story of Jimmy and his rise and fall. The album takes in love, lost love, drugs...pretty much everything Billie Joe has sung about before. Except this time it's from a third-person point of view. The album follows the story through Jimmy's life in a biographical kind of way. But that's not all pop pickers! BJ even manages to go one further, throwing in two nine-minute efforts which are split up into different parts, just like a scene from an old-skool play. 'Jesus of Suburbia' charts Jimmy's rise into adulthood, taking in menacing pace changes and lyrical styles as Billie Joe tells his story. By 'St Jimmy', a rocking mother of pop punk fury, the kid is an egotistical bastard and by the closing nine-miute 'Homecoming' he's a dead man. In between we have lots and lots of quality moments. 'Letterbomb' and 'Give Me Novocaine' are blasts to the Green Day of old, while 'Extraordinary Girl' is a great song. Every part of it - muscially, lyrically, structurally - is fantastic.

It's not that Green Day ever lost it, but 'American Idiot' is a brave return to form. 'Warning' was a good record, but it wasn't the Green Day we know and love. They've evolved, I know, and I don't expect another 'Dookie', but this is a record which shows the evolution, keeps things fresh, yet still reminds everyone that Green Day can write a fucking good song. And 'American Idiot' has a lot of them.

October 10, 2004
Entertainment News - Green Day: American Idiot
By REBECCA BARRY
NEW ZELAND HERALD
Herald rating: * * * *

Green Day must have been jingle writers in a former life, as the majority of these songs will have you humming along by the second chorus. First single American Idiot is a classic example, a perfect piece of punchy pop-punk that sells a political message with gleeful sarcasm: "Now everybody do the propaganda/And sing along in the age of paranoia."

You could say it's the ultimate anti-complacency sales pitch to the post-9/11 generation, and that it's likely to restore faith in their pop-writing ability, given the mediocre success of 2000's Warning.

The news is just as good elsewhere. St Jimmy and She's A Rebel come on as fast and frantic as the Pogues on speed, harking back to the three-chord power pop of their breakthrough album Dookie. The melodies are so simple they could get away with singing the lyrics to nursery rhymes over their North Cali and old British punk influences.

Lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong may not be one of the world's best wordsmiths but he's up there with Paul McCartney in terms of catchy tunes, even when he turns down the volume in what are bound to become stadium anthems for the lighter-waving crowd. Boulevard is a plaintive, soul-searching ballad; it wouldn't be surprising if Are We the Waiting turns up as an Amnesty International theme song.

Poignant messages aside, it took an American Idiot to mark Green Day's triumphant return to the charts, in what is likely to be one of the big albums of summer.

October 1, 2004
American revolution: Green Day gets operatic to fight the power
By Ted Reinert
THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

It goes without saying that nothing Green Day did subsequently could ever match Dookie. The year 1994 was the three-chord wonders' moment. Not only was Dookie the album that finally broke punk into the mainstream, but it also carried the 90s' second-most iconic cover after Nevermind's naked swimming child, and it was quite possibly the best release the genre has ever seen. Similarly, Green Day's music will never again touch the mainstream cultural consciousness the way their atypical acoustic ballad "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" from 1997 did; after all, Seinfeld isn't around anymore, except in reruns.

It may even come as a surprise that, in 2004, the band Green Day is still in existence. The legends have been replaced by younger, inferior groups like Blink-182 and New Found Glory on the radio. Green Day released one album of new material between 1998 and 2003, 2000's Warning, a work that was mature and respectable, but hardly exciting. It may come as a shock, then, that Green Day's new album, American Idiot, is both exciting and excellent. Very f***ing excellent.

American Idiot was conceived as a "punk opera," Green Day's version of the Who's Tommy. Green Day actually borrows the messianic theme of Tommy's final side and creates a storyline around the characters of the Jesus of Suburbia and St. Jimmy, who may or may not be one and the same and are the result of some combination of accurate commentary on fame and delusions of self-grandeur by frontman Billie Joe Armstrong. I'm not exactly sure what's going on with the Jesus, but the album does have an epic sweep to it and a unifying theme of confusion and sadness at unrealized dreams. American Idiot is Green Day's most ambitious album both thematically and musically, and a strong success.

Key to this achievement are a pair of nine-minute tracks with multiple movements near the beginning and end of the album. "Jesus of Suburbia" is pretty incredible, jumping from one catchy song to another. A decade or so ago, Green Day had "Chump" segue into "Longview" and "Brain Stew" into "Jaded," but this is something else.

Complicated backup vocal arrangements also help. These are most prevalent on the mid-album "Are We The Waiting" and the grand finale, "Homecoming." Tré Cool's drum work throughout the album is excellent.

But the real reason that American Idiot succeeds is that it is a truly stellar collection of songs, whether they achieve a unified transcendent message or not. The reverb-drenched "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" is as great and nearly as radio-friendly as "When I Come Around." Seriously. "Give Me Novacaine" is a gently strummed nugget with Hawaiian noises that eventually get obliterated under power chords. "Letterbomb" is a speedy punk nugget with a 24-carat chorus.

Another of American Idiot's highlights is its sharp political commentary. There was a nod towards politics on Warning's single "Minority," but this time around, Green Day is serious. The opening title track and first single is a barrage against the state of the nation ("Maybe I am the faggot America / I'm not a part of a redneck agenda / Now everybody do the propaganda! / And sing along to the age of paranoia").

"Holiday" is even more explicit, as Armstrong "beg[s] to dream and differ from the hollow lies" and suggests expatriation as long as it's not to France, whose destruction at the hands of the American government is imminent. This is about the same thing I've concluded in the case of a Bush victory November 2, so it was nice to hear it put into song.

After the "Homecoming" grand finale, the album ends with the coda of "Whatsername," a musing remembrance on the fate of a girl from the past. After all the high-flying big statement stuff, the closer is perfect in simplicity. American Idiot concludes as Green Day's most satisfying and best work since Dookie.

9/30/2004
Boys of Green Day grow up: Latest appeals to new listeners, faithful fans
Tristan Mathews
idsweekend IDSNEWS.com

From lip-biting masturbation and adolescent drug use, to a critical look at sociological and political issues, Green Day's lyrics have obviously evolved over the past decade, along with its style, sound, attitude and personality. The result is American Idiot, the band's newest and lengthiest attempt to date that proves the band's ability to stay contemporary and relevant with its ever- changing generation.

Unlike other bands from the post-punk early '90s, Green Day has grown with its audience while attracting new listeners instead of alienating old ones. It proved this by slightly deviating from its neo-punk rock roots with Nimrod and straying from them completely with 2000's Warning. The Bay City trio has received a lot of criticism over the past few years with insinuations of selling out, but the real talent of the band lies with its ability to change and its fearlessness in growing as musicians. Where bands like Blink-182 consistently cater to the same pre-teen audience, Green Day has persistently offered its longtime fans something different to expect each time a new album comes out. Dookie was released over a decade ago in February 1994, and no band is worth following if it could not progress in that great a span of time.

American Idiot is as much a reflection of the band's history and where it is headed as it is a reflection of American society and its current direction. The album begins with the band's first single "American Idiot," an amalgamation of Green Day's traditional sound. The song sets the precedent for the rest of the album with its mature lyrics and point of view. The song does a great job of reassuring fans that this is still the same trio but also introduces audiences to the band's newest incarnate shown immediately in the album's second track, "Jesus of Suburbia," a five-part nine-minute song that shares the epic qualities reminiscent of Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell or The Who's Tommy.

The songs retain the recurring themes found in all of its albums of mild insecurities and the feelings of isolation with a sense of adult introspection prevalent in "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." As one of the album's most chilling tracks, Billie Joe Armstrong eerily sings: "My shadow's the only one that walks beside me … Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me, till then I walk alone."

Each of the album's other songs is noteworthy, especially "Give Me Novacaine," "Wake Me Up When September Ends" and "Are We Waiting."

The weakest song on the album is "Holiday," a political statement critiquing the Bush administration as well as the band's home state governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. With the lyrics "The Representative of California has the floor/ Zieg Heil to the President Gasman" and "Pulverize the Eiffel Towers who criticize your government," the song comes off as a forced protest and seems redundant in a time where current political leaders are easy targets.

American Idiot is an amazing album and is by and large Green Day's most musically-impressive album yet. Longtime fans of Green Day will not be disappointed, and even those unfamiliar with the band's past releases can still obtain a great appreciation for the album by listening to it. It is refreshing and comforting to know that even though it took Green Day four years to produce a new album, the waiting will be much rewarded with yet another completely solid album.

Sept. 23, 2004
Green Day rises on 'American Idiot'
By MICHAEL D. CLARK
Houston Chronicle

The veteran smart alecks of Green Day have unearthed something even more elusive in music than the boy-band fountain of youth. With American Idiot, it has created the first punk-pop opera.

The band that once thought three minutes of music on anything more demanding than laziness and neuroses was indulgent, has created a concept album about war, international stress, conservative politics and seeing them all unfold in this super-saturated age of information.

Who knew Billie Joe Armstrong even watched CNN?

"Welcome to a new kind of tension, all across the Alienation, where everything isn't meant to be OK," Armstrong sings on the album's title track, over an arsenal of guitar rips, beats from drummer Tre Cool and thick bass from Mike Dirnt.

Green Day then introduces the character Jesus of Suburbia in the first of two nine-minute epics broken into five-part melody chapters.

Prog-rock bands Rush and Yes must be shedding tears at the sentiment.

Between epics Armstrong introduces a second character, St. Jimmy, on a tune that sounds as raw as the lyrical description of this ultimate anti-authoritarian.

Clearly some interpretation is left to the listener, but this odd couple moves through American Idiot contemplating extreme action (Letterbomb), inner pain (Give Me Novacaine), heartache (Extraordinary Girl) and ultimately, death.

The brilliance is that all of this happens to the accompaniment of the quick-flit guitar chords and elementary drum rolls that made Dookie brilliant.

American Idiot's sociopolitical story line gives the songs new lyrical passion without robbing them of their mosh-pit allure.

It might be the long-sought formula for punk longevity. One element shared by almost all the pierced, peeved and performing is a short shelf life. Punk is built on a fuse that is either meant to explode, or fizzle as fame turns rage and hunger into luxury and comfort.

Green Day was no different. Follow-ups to Dookie, its Grammy-winning punk revival album, such as Insomniac and especially Nimrod, proved that the trio was more than a three-chord adolescent yowl in the night. What it didn't realize is that fans wanted even more yowls like early hits Basket Case and Welcome to Paradise.

American Idiot gets back to the hair-pulling, finger-waving style of Dookie, but its documentary-style message is making the 30-something members of Green Day kings once again. When the set finally switches gears for the ballad Wake Me Up When September Ends, its solemn message has a grand-finale strength this band couldn't have mustered previously.

In the past decade everyone from blink-182 to Yellowcard has tried to walk in Green Day's shredded shoes. It will be interesting to see who has the chops and chutzpah to emulate a punk record so beautifully crafted as American Idiot.

Sep. 22, 2004
'Idiot' is pure genius from Green Day
By Tony Hicks
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Rating: A

IS THERE ANYTHING even remotely as nauseating as a punk band getting big enough to think they can do something as pretentious as a "rock opera" and get away with it?

Theoretically ... not even close.

But here's what's really appalling about the whole idea of Green Day's new, mega-hyped record, which is billed on the cover as "Green Day Presents American Idiot" It's exceptional.

And, even more repellent ... it makes perfect sense, especially coming two months before an election about which some people are panicking and becoming more willing than ever to publicly speak up rather than live with the consequences.

In a time when we can't walk through a supermarket without tripping over a political statement, "American Idiot" will grab listeners and give them a good shake -- both in content and the music itself.

The difference between opinionated art from Michael Moore and Green Day is more than just in the delivery. People expect Green Day to be the same, smirking, nose-picking, East Bay punks they were a decade ago breaking through with "Dookie." When a band like Green Day (which, let's face it, has never been overly afraid of upsetting their purist constituency), goes way out on a limb like this, it's worth noticing.

When they do it so clearly, in terms that a fan base can understand, it's more than worthy of notice. But going a step further, it's really special when they do it with great song after great song, managing to make their point, push the boundaries and still sound like the punk band we know and love (with a nod here and there to the Who and Meat Loaf).

There are so few records in the world worth sitting and reading along with, which is one reason why CDs are dying. The inside jacket on this one, however, is required reading.

It's not obvious in the slightest, but there are lots of sharp ups and downs, and pain and confusion, both in lyrics and music. Listeners can easily detect the direction but can form their own conclusion about the details.

The "American Idiot" protagonist evolves from being young and overwhelmed to confused, angry, reflective, accepting, and perhaps a bit wistful over how he turned out. The process technically involves 13 songs, though two are arching, five-part stories with 90-second twists. We hear a suburban kid becoming self-aware and going through the accompanying range of emotions. The storyline isn't so rare, but the broad context in modern terms is powerful. The whole thing pulsates with emotional conscience -- anger, acceptance, sadness, more anger, etc.

After kicking off the overview in typical Green Day fashion with first single "American Idiot," the band goes into "Jesus of Suburbia," one of the five-parters ranging from the gentle to the snarling. "Holiday" offers up a plethora of potentially classic lines, like "I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies. This is the dawning of the rest of our lives," or "Another protester has crossed the line to find the money's on the other side."

Nope, no poo-poo jokes on this record. But in this new territory, Green Day does a great job of staying focused and transitioning well from song to song while retaining their sound all the while. At least four songs could stand on their own as very good singles, especially the layered "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," the pained dynamics of "Give Me Novocain," and the double-time melodies of "Extraordinary Girl," which captures bright '60s pop like no other band since early '90s Jellyfish.

The material gets weighty again on the second five-part epic "Homecoming," which is a bit more like classic concept pieces paying quick homage to the Who on "East 12th Street," and Meat Loaf's "Rocky Horror Picture Show" appearance in "Rock and Roll Girlfriend," (penned by drummer Tre Cool).

The record ends appropriately with "Whatshername," as the protagonist is older and perhaps on another path. The character may have lost some edge, but not the band. Green Day has gone from being ultimate goofball punkers to really caring about their world, and they've made their most important record to show it.

September 28, 2004
Green Day - American Idiot - Album Review
Katherine Tomlinson
CONTACTMUSIC.COM

Following their recent politically fuelled single "American Idiot," Greenday follow up this promising taster with the follow-up to 2000 album "Warning." Like it’s title track, this 40-minute offering, is no less political and no less Greenday.

A concept album featuring characters such as Jesus of Suburbia and St. Jimmy, "American Idiot" tackles issues regarding the country’s government, in particular their leader, using epic song-writing and a mixture of driving and melodic punk to convey their bold messages.

Title track and current single "American Idiot" opens the album as it means to go on and leads into the first of two concept epics, "Jesus of Suburbia."

A story following a youth growing up, having choices to make who represents the population, having his choices ignored, and being brainwashed in a scathing attack upon the country’s leadership. Positive messages to not believe all you hear and make your own mind up make up this concept.

"To run and run away, to find what to believe,
And I leave behind this hurricane of fuckin lies"

That sentiment sums it up perfectly, a concept covering lies, government ignorance of the citizens, and angry attacks against the country’s leadership, all cleverly written lyrics, matched with melodic punk, as in "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" which on top seems to ooze romanticism, think again! This teasing song expresses angst against a false sense of democracy.

"My shadow is the only one that walks beside me,
My shallow hearts the only thing that’s beating"

Don’t fear, they’ve not gone slow melody soft, Greenday pack out a fair amount of powerful and driving tunes like only they can, and continuing the theme, "Holiday" is far from a fortnight in the sun.

A scathing and angry attack against and attacks against the US, which allegedly happened whilst the great leader was on holiday, conveyed in the lyrics and the powerful guitars, not lessened by the growled vocals:

"Bombs away is your punishment,
Pulverise the Eiffel Towers"

Second story "Homecoming" is a homecoming in itself for the band, a great epic taking you on a journey to the albums close, and through the life of St. Jimmy.

A man living alone in a city who’s inhabitants have been sent to war, whilst he’s left working at his desk. Dismissed the chance to do something for his country, St. Jimmy bored of routine, meets a sticky end.

"East 12th Street" statement "Does anyone care if nobody cares" sums it up well, as all the attention is devoted to the heroic soldiers. It’s not all a bed of roses, as the soldiers return from their own nightmare, and can’t wait to get home as they march their homecoming parade, to effective military drum beats and guitar riffs.

Not the only ones being welcomed, Greenday celebrate their homecoming and make a welcome return to the music scene with this, their seventh studio album, quite an achievement!

15 October 2004
Growing Up Without Getting Old: Green Day and the Art of the Unbelievable Comeback
by Tim O'Neil
POPMATTERS.COM

What the hell happened?

I mean it. I really wasn't expecting this. If you say you saw this one coming, you're lying. In all seriousness, who thought Green Day had it in them to deliver one of the best rock albums of the year?

Bands that have been around this long aren't supposed to be this creatively strong. Sure, every now and again there's a fluke like R.E.M. or the Flaming Lips, a band that continues to produce good music two or three decades after their initial success. But mostly, once a group hits their peak, it's a downhill slide. It's exceedingly rare to find a group capable of releasing their best album a decade after their commercial peak. Who in the hell thought Green Day would be that one-in-a-hundred? Not I.

Green Day is a group that showed every indication of being on the cusp of diminishing returns. Their last album, 2000's Warning, was released to mediocre reviews and middling sales. There was definite conflict in Warning's material, as the group's hard punk edge seemed increasingly at-odds with their steadily maturing songwriting acumen. Words such as "Beatle-esque" were bandied about by confused critics. Was this the same group that went Top 20 with an ode to serial masturbation? Was this the same Green Day who followed up their relatively poppy major label debut (the 10-times platinum Dookie) with the spitefully claustrophobic Insomniac?

There were four long years between the release of Warning and American Idiot, and in those four year's you could have been forgiven for believing that it looked as if Green Day might be close to the end of their strange and unexpected ride. The inevitable hits package (2001's International Superhits!), and the inevitable odds-and-sods compilation (2002's Shenanigans) did little to dispel the notion that the group was treading water.

Which brings us nicely to American Idiot. To say that this is a creative renaissance for the group would be a gross understatement: the fact is that with this album Green Day have finally cemented their position as one of the best rock outfits of their generation. I don't think that even their most enthusiastic fans could have predicted how fearsomely good this album would be.

Of course, every new Green Day album brings with it the perpetual kvetching over the soul of punk. Those who thought that punk died the moment Dookie hit the streets will find little hear to change their minds. Punk purists are perhaps the most loathsome gnats in all of creation. If you want to get technical, you can argue all damn day over whether or not the Ramones were really a punk band, or whether or not the Clash sold out when they went big, or whatever. Quite honestly, life is too short. Sure, we can all respect the Dischord records crews and their unswerving dedication to some pure Platonic ideal of Punk-with-a-capitol-"P". But honestly, most people just don't care. Call me a heretic all you want, but there's a reason why most punk bands worth their salt eventually change and grow. Punk is a journey, not a destination. If you want to record the same brutally raw and punishingly fast tracks over and over again, go ahead and have fun. But if that's all you want to do for the rest of your life, you're pretty weird.

But the fact that a bunch of noise fetishists wanted to turn punk into thrash metal's grim and ugly kid sister can't erase the fact that so many of the early, seminal punk groups were nothing if not adept pop songwriters. The Ramones wanted nothing more than to create a genuine tribute to the Bay City Rollers and the Ronettes. From the very beginning the Clash had a crystalline songwriting talent that belied their angry exterior. The Damned were obviously having a good time. The fact that smart art-pop groups like the Talking Heads and Blondie have as much of a legitimate claim to punk credibility as Sham 69 or the Buzzcocks has always meant, to me, that punk was only ever a state of mind. You can hem and haw about whether or not Blink 182 or Sum 41 are punkers or poseurs, but at the end of the day it only matters to anyone insecure enough to perceive the dilution of an arbitrary generic idealization as a personal threat. If Sum 41 think they're playing punk music, does it make your Minor Threat CDs any less enjoyable to you? If it does, that's an extremely petty worldview you've got there.

In any event, there are few things less "punk" than a rock opera. The very phrase connotes a level of pretension and premeditation that is alien to even the most generous conception of the genre. Certainly, Tommy is a classic, and the Who are considered among the progenitors of punk . . . but still. Concept albums as a whole are tricky business, and when you take the final step dividing concept from narrative, you are entering hoary pastures. There's blessed little air between Dark Side of the Moon and Tarkus. When I heard that Green Day were doing a "punk rock opera", I have to admit I thought it was a joke.

But it wasn't a joke. Apparently, the four years between albums were difficult for the group. They found themselves unhappy with the mixed results of Warning, riven by resentment and unsure whether or not to even continue. But the strangest thing happened: instead of allowing dissatisfaction to blow the group apart, they sat down and talked. Unlike fellow Bay Area natives Metallica, they didn't need a $40,000-a-month shrink to work through their problems.

The group's increasingly ambitious songwriting was openly addressed. The group wanted to place the straight pop which had begun to blossom on 1997's Nimrod and which had taken a more prominent place on Warning into a cleaner synthesis with the aggressive punk of their early material. Basically, the group realized that they needed to manage the almost impossible task of embracing a more mature sound without sacrificing their youthful vigor. Amazingly, they have achieved this precarious balance on American Idiot.

The album begins with the title track, one of the disc's harder punk tracks. It starts the album off on the right foot, with the group's familiar sound on display for longtime fans, as well as a blast of energy for newcomers. The second track, "Jesus of Suburbia", is the first of two nine-minute suites, containing five movements each. Obviously, the point of reference here is the Who's immortal "A Quick One (While He's Away)". The Who were able to pull off the rather absurd premise of a ten-minute long operetta based almost entirely on their musical prowess. They couldn't help but rocking, regardless of whatever the hell they happened to be rocking about. Green Day have discovered the same kind of infectious confidence on "Jesus of Suburbia". You don't notice that the track is nine minutes long, because each distinct suite has the energy of a distinct and coherent song. Every couple of minutes they lurch into another section, turning on a dime and heading off in another direction entirely. It's thoroughly engrossing.

Before I received my copy of American Idiot, I saw a half-hour television performance that the group recorded for the Fuse network. They performed every note of "Jesus of Suburbia" with perfect precision, perhaps even shaving a few seconds off the total playing time. They needed an extra set of hands to tackle the layered guitar parts, as well as to handle the stunt xylophone during "Dearly Beloved", but considering the complexity of the music it's impressive that the only needed a single set of extra hands. Although Green Day have always been an impressive live band, they have now evolved into something else entirely, tackling these dizzyingly complex movements with the exact same level of reckless enthusiasm with which they have always tackled their hardest and most unforgiving punk tracks. "Jesus of Suburbia" is just a damn fantastic piece of music, probably the best thing on American Idiot. I find myself wanting to listen to it over and over again, repeatedly pressing the back button on the Windows Media Player like a chimp pulling the lever for his food pellet.

The rest of the album is pretty damn good, too. The melancholy melody of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" will stick to the inside of your skull like salt-water taffy. "Give Me Novacaine" is a soft-hard bruiser of a track, with a sweet acoustic pop verse set against a sludge-drenched punk chorus. It almost sounds like half of "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)" welded to half of "Geek Stink Breath" -- and as unlikely as that sounds, it works. There are even the soft, muted sounds of a Hammond organ purring softly as the track slides to a sweet close.

"Extraordinary Girl" is another early favorite. It's one of the least typically Green Day tracks on the album, with a strange retro-'60s vibe that almost reminds me of the Bangles with a tad more of a Carnaby Street vibe. "Letterbomb" features a brief cameo from Le Tigre's Kathleen Hanna, and it is also one of the album's most incendiary tracks. This could easily be a hit in the vein of "Basket Case" or "Nice Guys Finish Last". I am still a bit torn on "Wake Me Up When September Ends". It's one of the album's most heartfelt and affecting tunes, but it's also the one most likely to end up used at the end of an episode of Dawson's Creek, or whatever show the kids are watching these days.

But at the end of the day, I really can't accuse Green Day of having compromised anything for the sake of recording more accessible pop music. The fact is that they suffered for the right to write whatever the hell kind of songs they want. The group almost imploded from the stress of trying very hard to be two things at the same time: an orthodox punk group and a burgeoning power-pop outfit. Ultimately, the only way they were able to make it through was by realizing that they weren't going to be happy unless they accepted the fact that their muse wanted them to go in some expansive directions. It's the same thing, really, that happened to the Clash and Wire and so many of the best punk bands throughout music history. They reached a point where they realized that the rigid strictures of punk were standing in the way of doing what they wanted to do. Not everyone can be the Ramones, and really, who else has ever approached that kind of Zen purity with their abrasively minimal songwriting? I'm glad Joe Strummer and Co. didn't give a second thought to these things before they recorded London Calling, and I'm similarly glad that Green Day were able to settle the matter in such a way as to enable them to record American Idiot.

What is that? There's no way American Idiot deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence as London Calling? Well, don't get me wrong, the album isn't that good, but that's not saying much considering that by any measure London Calling is considered one of the top-five rock albums of all time. Sure, Green Day aren't quite in that league (who is?), but they are definitely playing in the major leagues.

The "Homecoming" suite which closes the album is, while perhaps a bit less cohesive than "Jesus of Suburbia", all the more maniacally inventive. Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool actually get to sing a section each. Dirnt's piece is an odd piece of punk-rock chamber music with martial drums, while Cool's bit is just a crazy piece of roadhouse rock and roll which reminds me of what Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band would sound like if you stuffed them all in a closet together and made them huff modeling glue out of a paper sack before they went on stage. It all builds to an impossibly preposterous and almost comically grand finish. While the influence of the Who is pervasive throughout the album, this track wears the influence most plainly. It didn't initially impress me as much as the rest of the album, but after a few listenings it has grown on me considerably.

The album ends with "Whatsername", a plainspoken and painful evocation of, well, growing up. Billy Joe sings "I remember the face but I can't recall the name / Now I wonder how Whatsername has been" with the honest emotion of someone who has lived through the disorientation of growing up and older and experienced the realization that the past can never be reclaimed. "I'll never turn back time", he sings wistfully as the albums comes to a close. It's as brutally affecting a line as I've heard all year.

Certainly, it doesn't really do you any good to try to follow the supposed storyline: like Tommy, it only makes as much sense as you're willing to suspend disbelief. But the fact is that despite some recurring motifs, the album would hold up just as well if you had no idea there was supposed to be any sort of common thread between the tracks. It's an album full of brilliant tracks that somehow add up to more than the sum of their individual parts. If there's ever a Broadway musical adaptation I'm sure it will all make sense, but until that day you will just have to be content with the album as is.

If, 10 months ago, you had told me that Green Day would release one of the very best pop records of the year, I would have laughed. Nothing against Green Day, but they have always been the underdogs. No one ever really expected them to be so unbelievably popular as they were in the '90s. No one really expected them to still be around and still selling records some 10 years after Dookie. The fact is that they are without a doubt the most successful punk group of all time, with all the contradictory baggage that such a dubious honor implies. They are also now one of the very best rock bands currently working. American Idiot is a work of staggering ambition, made all the more impressive by the fact that they make it all look so damn effortless. Considering the fact that Billy Joe is still only 32 years old, it boggles the mind to imagine just where the band can go from here.