Review: 21st Century Breakdown

7.9/10.0

Somewhere within the 70 minute, 18 song rock opera that is 21st Century Breakdown you will find Green Day's best album. The latest LP from the East Bay pop punk trio is a bloated mess of a record, but the kind of mess one might expect from a group trying to follow up an album that transformed them from middle aged apathy rockers to one of the biggest bands on the planet. After the critical and commercial anomaly that was American Idiot, Green Day responds with an album that throws a lot of ideas at the wall with varying degrees of success.

In 2004, American Idiot sold 26 million units worldwide, reached #1 in nineteen countries, delivered four top 10 singles, and won the band a Grammy for Best Rock Album. After buddying up with Bono (Uh oh), recording with U2 (Oh no), and performing a John Lennon cover on American Idol (Dear god), it was clear that Green Day had established a much wider fan base than ever before. For every 13-year old emo brat listening to "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" on repeat there were equal amounts of anti-Bush liberals pumping their fists against the "redneck agenda" and music critics responding to Billie Joe Armstrong's newfound lyrical inspiration.

Fully aware of the expectations all these factions had for a follow up album, Green Day disappeared for three years to figure out what to do next. Two side projects (Pinhead Gunpowder and the stellar Foxboro Hot Tubs) and a new presidency later, the band found themselves with a ton of new material (one interview suggests the band had over 70 new songs!) and no idea what to do with all of it. Should they completely abandon their new model for success and return to something more like Dookie? Should they release a stripped down affair that focused more on acoustic experimentation than electric pogo punk? Should it be political? Should it be about smoking weed?

Instead of committing to a more cohesive model, the band decided to release an album that offered a bit of everything. But by trying to please everyone, they satisfy no one.

The structure of 21st Century Breakdown is most in tune with their previous record. It is a concept album following two characters (Christian and Gloria replace Jesus of Suburbia, St. Jimmy, and Whatsername) trying to make sense of a modern American landscape post-9/11, post-Bush, and pre-Obama. The band organizes the album's tracks into a silly structure, three awkwardly titled acts with names like "Heroes and Cons" and "Horseshoes and Handgrenades". This would all make sense if the album had an actual story to tell, but 21st Century Breakdown's narrative is infuriatingly elusive.

Lyrically, the album bounces all over the place. Tracks criticizing religious extremism ("East Jesus Nowhere"), war ("21 Guns"), over-medication ("Restless Heart Syndrome"), and complacency ("Know Your Enemy") are intercut with songs describing the character's backstories (the title track) and emotional states ("¡Viva La Gloria!" and "Christian's Inferno"). Billie Joe Armstrong has always been best as a lyricist when focusing on his own feelings rather than trying to speak for everyone else. On "Last of the American Girls," one of the album's standout tracks, he tenderly describes a young rebel girl who, "wears her overcoat for the coming of the nuclear winter" and is "on a hunger strike for the ones who won't make it for dinner." He observes a more hopeful world where "the non-believers go beyond belief" on closing track "See the Light". Even on the autobiographical title track, Armstrong focuses on his own childhood with a playfully vivid imagination:

"Born into Nixon, I was raised in hell

A welfare child where the teamsters dwelled.

The last one born, the first one to run

My town was blind from refinery sun."

From the wordplay on Insomiac's "Walking Contradiction" to the "GI Joe in pantyhose" on Nimrod's "King for a Day," Billie Joe has always had a knack for the tongue-in-cheek. But for every clever phrase and witty observation, 21st Century Breakdown also contains some of Armstrong's most cringe-worthy refrains. On past albums, his biggest weaknesses lie in his propensity to over-generalize or to speak in vague metaphor. On the bizarre "Christian's Inferno," he lazily describes a diabolic state that is "gracing [his] existence like a catastrophic baby". Equally painful is the main character in "¿Viva La Gloria?" whose "soul is purging of love and razor blades." And nothing is worse than his request on "Song of the Century" for a song that is "louder than bombs and eternity."

Luckily, the album's lyrical shortcomings are overshadowed by its ambitious sonic landscape. On 21st Century Breakdown, Green Day boldly expand upon their traditional three-chord punk pop model. Even when songs fall into familiar territory, they feel fresh amongst new surroundings. "¡Viva La Gloria!" opens as an Elton John piano ballad drenched in violins before departing into power chord riffing reminiscent of "Letterbomb" from the last record. Guided by Armstrong's falsetto vocal register, "Before the Lobotomy" opens with an acoustic arpeggio before morphing into a Who-like stadium romp. Two more piano ballads, "Last Night On Earth" and "Restless Heart Syndrome" find influence from Beatles songs like "Hey Jude" and "A Day in the Life."

The most adventurous tracks are found in the album's second act. The oddly effective latin cut "Peacemaker" (a speedier kid sister to "Misery" from Green Day's Warning) would have been disastrous if it wasn't for Armstrong's enthusiastic vocals. Less successful is "¿Viva La Gloria?" which just sounds like "Blood, Sex, and Booze" (another Warning song) without all the fun. Far more exhilarating is the second leg of "American Eulogy" which provides rare and impressive lead vocals from bassist Mike Dirnt and also contains the album's most infectious chorus (Try not to sing along to the repeated lyric "I don't wanna live in the modern world." I dare you.)

The problem with 21st Century Breakdown is there is just too much material. Even with lots of fresh ideas, Armstrong and company come off as repetitive and directionless. No doubt, the album contains some of Green Day's most inspired songwriting and the expansion of their ever-growing soundscape provides exciting opportunities for the future. But presented in this structure and at this length, Breakdown comes off as bloated and pretentious.

There is absolutely no reason why this album had to be 18 songs long (honestly, what do the songs "Murder City" and "Song of the Century" bring to the table?). Somewhere in an edited, twelve song reconstruction the band has topped American Idiot. In the end, however, Green Day is guilty of offering too much Green Day. When Billie Joe repeatedly asks us if we know that our enemy is ourselves in lead single "Know Your Enemy," one can't help but wonder why he didn't know the same rule applied to himself.