Thursday, November 5, 2009

My Amazon Reviews: Green Day "21'st Century Breakdown"

The Era of Static and Contraband,
4 Out of 5 Stars

If American Idiot was Green Day's Tommy, then '21'st Century Breakdown" must be Quadrophenia. Really good stuff, but not quite as mind blowing as the original. The comparisons to The Who are screaming out from the "Baba O'Riley" inspired piano that opens the first act to the stunning power of the climactic "21 Guns." There are moments when "21'st Century Breakdown" really does sound like it could be the level of classic that "American Idiot" is now recognized to be.

Problems surface as you keep listening. The lack of variety becomes waring at about the halfway mark, redeemed mostly by "21 Guns" and the high velocity "Horseshoes and Hand-grenades." Like many ambitious albums, "21'st Century Breakdown" takes on too much and doesn't score bulls-eyes on all counts, and that starts making the album drag out. Making this a two act play instead of three might have trimmed the fat a bit, but how do you tell an artist (like Billie Joe)with this much vision that he needs to cut back? The answer is; You can't. So you look at the 75% of the album that positively makes your jaws drop.

To the end, there's plenty. The saga of Christian and Gloria is kind of hard to follow (again, shades of "Quadrophenia"), but the rocking numbers blast through the muck. The album again plays with the usual Green Day formula; the acoustic drive of "Peacemaker" recalls the more experimental Warning. And even though I've mentioned it multiple times in this review, "21 Guns" is - to my ears - quite probably the best single that Green Day has ever released. "21'st Century Breakdown" may not ultimately be the group's best album, but it's nothing to be ashamed of. And perhaps, like "Quadrophenia," may gain in stature as the years pass.

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