Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown | |
Label: Warner Bros
Release date: 15 May 2009
Lowest price: £4.00
Review: Over three years in the making, 21st Century Breakdown is the answer to the question Green Day are stuck with--exactly how do you follow up a twelve million selling rock opera? With more of the same (Full Review) (Tracks)
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Full Review
Over three years in the making, 21st Century Breakdown is the answer to the question Green Day are stuck with--exactly how do you follow up a twelve million selling rock opera? With more of the same, of course, just like the Who used to do. To be honest, the narrative line is largely incoherent, following the story of starstruck young lovers Christian and Gloria (as in G-L-O-R-I-A) as they confront The Man in a predictably dystopian world. But though plenty of bands have recently resuscitated this long discredited form--The Mars Volta and the excellent, not dissimilar Thermals, to name but two--none can pack in so many decent tunes as Billie Jo Armstrong, Tre Cool and Mike Dirnt. Even as they approach middle age, they still sound trapped by their youth, whether it's Armsrong describing himself (or maybe his character) as a child of the Nixon era or simply reviving the power-pop sound of Cheap Trick. Yet if the plot is murky, songs like single "Know Your Enemy", as reductive as AC/DC and as gleefully catchy as the latest Disney teen rock sensation, the shameless and resigned power ballad "21 Guns", "Before the Lobotomy", one part punk rock, one part melodramatic ballad, and the classic rock of the title track sound like radio staples on the very first hearing. Older listeners may be reminded of Husker Du's equally impenetrable and ambitious song cycle Warehouse. But that was the work of a band actively seeking fans. 21st Century Breakdown is a wildly unfocussed collection seemingly set on confusing them. But it certainly features some great tunes.-- Steve Jelbert
Tracks
| | Song Of The Century | 21st Century Breakdown | | Know Your Enemy | Viva La Gloria | | Before The Lobotomy | Christian's Inferno | | Last Night On Earth | East Jesus Nowhere | | Peacemaker | Last Of The American Girls | | Murder City | Viva La Gloria (Little Girl) | | Restless Heart Syndrome | Horseshoes And Handgrenades | | Static Age, The | 21 Guns | | American Eulogy | See The Light |
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