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I have to admit that it’s been years since I’ve listened to Green Day. Their tales of suburban boredom, alienation, and failed romances fueled my high school days and I remained a loyal fan all the way through Nimrod. By the time Warning came out, I had lost interest and the only songs I remember from that record are “Minority” and the title-track, which sounded A LOT like The Kinks’ “Picture Book.” However, by that time I was listening to The Kinks and could care less about Green Day. So what inspired me to finally give American Idiot a listen? I have to admit that a big part of it was the hype. How is Green Day, all of a sudden, as popular as they were a decade ago (and with a political album, at that)? My curiosity was definitely sparked… The truth is, musically, Green Day haven’t changed ALL that much. They’ve matured a bit and added more acoustic guitars with plenty of ease. The Who influence is also more apparent on American Idiot. Lyrically, Green Day have also grown up…rather than the teenage politics of “punks vs. jocks,” they’ve embraced adult politics. Like the bleeding heart-grenade on the cover implies, they’re now at war with the conservative state of our nation: “Well maybe I'm the faggot America / I'm not a part of a redneck agenda.” And while Green Day does address the war and the current, paranoid state of our nation in a few songs; others still have to do with personal politics and love, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. While I thought most of the songs weren’t bad, the two that most impressed me most were the nine-minute epics: “Jesus Of Suburbia” and “Homecoming.” Both take cues from The Who’s: “A Quick One, While He’s Away,” and end up sounding more like 5 songs than 1 without losing energy or momentum in the process. What the listener is left with in the end is a slightly more experimental Green Day album. A few ballads and two excellent songs are mixed in with their usual pop-punk anthems. Depending on how you feel about Green Day, this can be good or bad. Aside from “Jesus Of Suburbia” and “Homecoming,” American Idiot isn’t quite the “revolutionary” album I expected, but it’s decent. It’s refreshing that Green Day isn’t content with re-writing Dookie every few years, and if they keep taking chances, maybe their next album will be something truly incredible. |
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