Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown

Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown

Release date: May 15, 2009

With 21st Century Breakdown, Green Day prove that they’ve come a long way since Dookie.  The band practically invented the pop-punk genre in the 1990s, inspiring countless followers with their breakthrough album’s mix of ultra-catchy pop melodies, rough-hewn punk instrumentation, and irreverent attitude.  But now, well into their second decade as a band, Green Day seem to be distancing themselves from their roots as much as possible, creating music that attempts to be much more diverse, ambitious, and serious than their past output.  Whatever you want to call it - reinvention, rebranding, or simply “growing up” - it’s been a gradual process, hinted at on 2000’s Warning and reaching full tilt with 2004‘s American Idiot.  But on their newest album, Green Day seems to have finally shed most of what was left of their pop-punk past.  This begs the question: if they’re no longer a pop-punk band, just what are they?

If 21st Century Breakdown has an answer to that question, it’s not easy to find.  The band seems just as confused about their own identity as their fans have become, and it shows on the material here.  A portion of the album’s tracks are energetic rock tunes that do seem to reach back to the band’s old days, if only in terms of volume level and instrumentation rather than mentality.  The relentlessly driving single “Know Your Enemy” is a good example of this, along with “Horseshoes And Handgrenades” and “Christian’s Inferno.”  It’s in these songs that the band seems most comfortable, as if for a moment they’re only concerned about rocking out instead of trying to make a sophisticated musical statement.  The rest of the album consists of deliberately grandiose, multi-faceted, piano-led anthems in the vein of American Idiot.  It’s painfully obvious that the band was trying to recapture the epic feel of their last record, particularly on songs such as “¡Viva La Gloria!” and “21 Guns.”  The new material sounds woefully forced, however, and devoid of almost any originality.  A few of these songs, including the title track, do have their moments, but even they seem derived, not only from classic rock bands like Queen, but from Green Day’s own material.

Perhaps an even bigger crime than the album’s musical missteps is that the carefree attitude of early Green Day is nowhere to be found.  Though Billie Joe Armstrong still knows how to write a hook - and rest assured, the album is full of them - his lyrics have taken on a heavy-handed, melodramatic quality befitting the album’s rock opera aspirations.  It’s hard to tell just what this rock opera’s storyline is, though, since nothing makes quite enough sense to fit into place inside a larger concept.  As far as telling a story through lyrics goes, American Idiot did a much better job.  There are some satisfying moments on 21st Century Breakdown, but the overall feeling of the album is that of a band trying too hard to create something deep and meaningful when their strengths lie in the exact opposite direction.  It’s a moderately enjoyable listen, but Green Day have done much better.

2.5/5

Standout Tracks:

• “Christian’s Inferno”
• “Know Your Enemy”
• “Horseshoes And Handgrenades”

Silversun Pickups - Swoon

Silversun Pickups - Swoon

Release date:  April 14, 2009

If there’s any band today that would be poised to lead a full-fledged Nineties-alternative revival, it would be the Silversun Pickups.  Few albums in recent memory have captured that unique vibe as well as 2009’s Swoon.  The California band has certainly chosen to channel an interesting time for music.  Back in the early Nineties, more so than ever before, the lines between mainstream and underground, between ubiquitous and obscure, were beginning to blur.  This change in the status quo of popular music was often reflected in the music itself.  The dichotomy of catchy hooks and lo-fi noise, of anguished lyrics and toe-tapping grooves, became a common one - just listen to any early Smashing Pumpkins album and you’ll hear it.  It’s this combination of total accessibility and blown-speaker aesthetics that the Pickups have very effectively tapped into - and, in some ways, improved upon - on their latest album.

An indispensable part of the equation is, of course, the overall sound of the album.  Swoon is a meticulously textured album, although that may not be immediately obvious - the production is usually subtle enough that it’s barely noticeable.  Nothing blatantly jumps out at you; everything just sounds, in a word, right.  Fuzzed-out guitars surface and recede again among driving drum beats, sinuous bass lines, and just the right amount of layered, effect-laden sound to fill in whatever gaps there may be and set the mood of the song perfectly.  From the opening swells of first track “There’s No Secrets This Year,” giving way to one of the album’s most relentless guitar riffs, to the much more subdued, slow-building atmosphere of “Growing Old Is Getting Old,” the album hits the sonic mark again and again.  Perhaps most remarkably, Swoon achieves this without sounding overly Pro-Tooled, retaining a very human touch - no small feat in today’s overly-engineered musical landscape.

Of course, all this sonic construction would be for naught if the songs themselves didn’t stand up to scrutiny.  Luckily, the Pickups have enough songwriting chops to match their mood-setting skill.  First single “Panic Switch” displays their prowess as effectively as any other track, as frontman Brian Aubert’s distinctive delicate-to-caustic vocals outline insistent melodies that are guaranteed to stick with you long after the song ends.  “The Royal We” and “Catch & Release” are just as catchy and enduring, and together with most of the rest of the album’s tracks, prove that this band is far more than a Gen-X nostalgia act.  Instead of reliving a point in musical history without offering anything new, the Silversun Pickups are crafting mature, relevant, and totally enjoyable music that should appeal to a wide range of musical tastes and ages.  Go pick up Swoon - you won’t be disappointed.

4/5

Standout Tracks:

• “There’s No Secrets This Year”
• “Growing Old Is Getting Old”
• “The Royal We”
• “Catch & Release”