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”