Green Day

[The Wind]

Listen to their new song, [link=http://idiotclub.ru/Media/21stcenturebreakdown.mp3]21st Century Breakdown[/link].

They're going the way of American Idiot, again. I'm optimistic.

[Desensitized]

They learned a lot from Bowie and the Hot Tubs, I see.

I'm still optimistic, I just hope they don't push to far with the bombast. My favorite Green Day are the hopeful underdogs from Warning.

[The Wind]

A lot of this song reminds me of Baba O'Riley

[Desensitized]

Really? I got Freebird from the ending, Bowie for the start, and classic Green Day for the middle.

[The Wind]

What does everyone think?

[Surly]

I get a big HTTP error for the link.

I wasn't that fussed about the Know Your Enemy single though…

[Sonic Libido]

I really like green day…. I don't care if that makes me a musical idiot, I like their music.

[The Wind]

[quote1242595197=Surly]
I get a big HTTP error for the link.

I wasn't that fussed about the Know Your Enemy single though…
[/quote1242595197]

Yeah, it's down. That was months ago. The link also had a different intro than the album version, too.

[Desensitized]

The first single is probably the worst choice for a single they've ever made. Why didn't they go with 21st Century Breakdown?

This album also seems way too over thought, to me. I hope they're done with this "Serious OMG" phase now, and go back to just writing about what they feel instead of telling convoluted stories that make little to no sense.

I still think Warning and Nimrod are their best albums.

[The Wind]

Know Your Enemy did its job perfectly. It is the epitome of lead-in single.

That doesn't mean I think it's good.

They really lifted a lot of their own and other peoples' material for this album. The flow is convoluted, for a concept album, it just doesn't feel good as one.

[Desensitized]

Well, I sat down and REALLY listened intently to this album, and my opinion is as follows:

Act I is weak. I really like Last Night On Earth and the title track is kinda nifty despite sounding like a copy/paste job. The rest are forgettable as fuck.

Act II is FAR better. East Jesus Nowhere is forgettable, though. Another copy/paste job. Peacemaker is a brilliant storytelling song that would be better not tied to this convoluted story, Last Of The American Girls is a fun pop song despite the Armageddon lyrics and is the first to actually get me moving, Murder City reminds me of a 90s alt rock single and gives me mad nostalgia for some reason… But I still like it quite a bit. Little Girl is Misery part 2, only no one will realize it because no one fucking bought Warning, but it's still pretty decent. Restless Heart Syndrome will probably be a hit single because it's a Boulevard Of Broken Dreams clone and quite boring at that. Disappointing start and ending to a pretty good act.

Act III is the first act to start out strong. Horseshoes & Handgrenades (named after the great ex-Replacements drummer Chris Mars album of the same title) is the first rocker to actually feel like a Green Day rocker. I know some call it a rip off of Main Offender by The Hives, but that's a real stretch. The Static Age is an interesting song, feels like a progression from the American Idiot style. I know some people don't like this song, but for some reason I really, really do. This SHOULD be a single but won't. Some say the chorus is similar to Church On Sunday, but that's a stretch… I love that song too, but the connection is weak at best. 21 Guns sounds like Boulevard Of Broken Guns meets All The Young Dudes by David Bowie (and Mott The Hoople), the verses are pretty dull, but the chorus is awesome. It's another pretty good story piece from a soldier's point of view.

As for American Eulogy: Why the fuck is Mass Hysteria a Deadbeat Holiday clone? Green Day, if you like Warning that much, just stick to that style. Stop fucking ripping off your own songs. There's more Bowie sprinkled in there, too. Modern World is better, but the verses are ripped right out of a Clash song (that escapes my mind at the moment) and the song is a bit too frenetic. This two parter is pretty average overall.

See The Light is their weakest album closer yet. Green Day has always had a powerful album ender, and this one breaks tradition. It feels like a B-Side.

So overall… 7 songs I really like, 2 songs that are pretty good, and 9 forgettable songs. For an 18 track album, that's pretty weak. In comparison, Nimrod was also an 18 track album, and I can only think of one song that could have been cut ('Reject') and possibly two others ('Jinx' and 'Haushinka'), every other song was as strong as the singles released for it.

I'm not sure what to say here. The album is too much of a patchwork. Bits from Bowie, pieces of Warning, American Idiot grandeur with the pomp turned up to 11, no humor whatsoever (check out the Who cover they did for this album, 'A Quick One While He's Away', it has more humor than this entire album put together), and instead of expressing genuine emotion, simply tries to tell a story to make a very less than subtle point. You know why American Idiot worked? Because it was a simple story about a boy who got lost in the modern world and 'learns what it takes to be a man'. It was not political preaching, there was not an epic message, it was just a simple story with some subtext and commentary about the society we live in.

This is written from the point of view of someone who thinks what he has to say is important. This is more about the message than the music. This is not Billie Joe, this is Bono. This is exactly what I was afraid they'd do after American Idiot, and it's exactly what they did.

Some will call this album mature. It is not mature. Nimrod was mature. Warning was mature. American Idiot was mature. This is even more childish than Dookie. Green Day was always a band about discovery. Learning about homosexuality, becoming what you hate, remembering the past, looking towards the future, laughing at the little things, trying to explain feelings you can't express. Green Day was not band to tell you what to think, they were the band that just wanted to make sense of it all. And that's what made Nimrod their first mature statement. It was the first where they came to terms with who they were and had moved beyond singing about masturbation. 21CB is just a band telling an 'epic' story and trying to make a 'grand' commentary on something they clearly know nothing about. Unfortunately, I don't even know what that something is, because I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT THE FUCK HE'S SINGING ABOUT IN ANY OF THESE SONGS. But if they understood what they were singing about, then they would be able to make it coherent.

I listen to Green Day because of those lyrics and because of the amount of effort the band puts into their songwriting. 21CB is the first Green Day album where I could play 'spot the influence' on every song, which indicates to me that they did not work on this album as hard as they would have us believe.

Now the album may have let me down lyrically, but how about musically? Well… What happened to Mike's basslines? I let it go on American Idiot, because his style might not have fit that album, but here? The music is so generally boring an unexciting that it really could have used his catchy basslines. The drumming on this album is so stock and boring that I can't even go on about it. There are several points on every Green Day album where Tre Cool's drumming makes me bang my head profusely, but I think that happened only once on this album.

Can I also just add in that I don't want to hear anything produced by Butch Vig ever again? He adds nothing to anything he touches anymore. The last Jimmy Eat World album could have been great had he actually did anything with them. He does nothing to warrant being a producer.

Chris Lord Alge did a great job as mixer, as he always does. With Jerry Finn gone, I don't want to see anyone mix a Green Day album other than him or Jack Joseph Puig ever again.

Sorry for the review/rant, but Green Day is a very important band to me, and as someone who has grown with them since picking up 'Dookie' back in Elementary school, I just couldn't let this go without commentary. Hopefully on the next go around they put away the Mott The Hoople and David Bowie records, and write some Green Day songs.

[The Wind]

I thought 21 Guns sounded like Heart of Gold. The verses.

An yeah. I can't understand the story, whereas I could with AI.
But I thought Act I was the best, because it's the only one that I can follow, lyrically. And Christian's Inferno is beautiful.

[Desensitized]

Now that you mention it, I do hear it. Geez, it's like you pull a thread hard enough and the song falls apart.

Christian's Inferno sounds like a Network b-side to me. Being as I'm not that crazy about the Network, it really didn't do anything for me.

I didn't even get the story in Act I, what's happening?

[The Wind]

From what I got from it:

War's brewing (21st Century Breakdown), it's being totally romanticized (Gloria) and propaganda is spread around (Know Your Enemy). Then there's the reality of war (Before The Lobotomy, Christian's Inferno). Last Night on Earth just seems like a love song from Christian after Gloria dumps his ass in Christian's Inferno.

I could be wrong.

Something fun: you can sing along to Last Night on Earth with the Foo Fighters' Up in Arms for a bit.

[Desensitized]

I guess that means Act II takes place in the middle east? Christian goes off to war while Gloria stays behind, and they pine for each other.

I guess. I mean it's not like there's a cohesive narrative here.

Act III is a complete mystery to me.

[The Wind]

Is that was Act II is? I thought the war was over at the end of Act I. Last of The American Girls sounds like a new character (actually I noticed that song could fit in American Idiot about Whatsername)

Who the fuck knows.

[Desensitized]

I don't really know. The story is made too general, there's no specific narrative to pick out. I just assumed it was the war in the middle east because of the titles and the lyrics of the first two songs.

Now from which character's point of view, I have no idea.

[The Wind]

Here's a new one:

Static Age chorus= Church On Sunday chorus

Also the opening chords to 21st Century Breakdown/See The Light are very reminiscent of Amazing Journey.

[Desensitized]

Dude… You're making my opinion on this album fall further.

Did they just take apart Church On Sunday to make half the songs on this album? It's everywhere.

[The Wind]

I've really been listening to it s lot. Probably a total of six-seven times through (I just left it in my car CD player since I got it) and really like some of the songs, even though I know a shitload are just lifted. I can get enjoyment out of listening to this album now.

I'll be sure to post updates for every song I find in one of their songs.

[madamadam]

Nothing to do with Greenday, but it ties in to the song in a song convo: The other day I was at my local on open mic night and this band comes on and starts playing a song which sounded a lot like the sort of thing Blink would play. Then the next song sounded a lot like the sort of thing Blink would play. When we could sing Dammit over the next song and have it match perfectly we thought it was getting a bit ridiculous – these guys clearly took to much influence from them.

Guess what their next (and closing) song was?

If your guess was "those talentless hacks were clearly stupid enough to follow the song they'd ripped off from Dammit with a cover of the song they'd ripped off itself" then you're much better at seeing stupidity coming than I was.

[Desensitized]

It's funnier how as pop punk bands take influence, they get poppier/lose edge.

Descendents > Operation Ivy > Green Day > Blink 182 > New Found Glory > every major label act

I can't wait to see what's next!

[Sonic Libido]

I really like the green day live album.

just sayin'… it's fun to listen too.

[Desensitized]

Would've been better if they didn't cut songs. :p

[Sonic Libido]

I agree, I heard they cut it to make room for the documentary bits…. and, although on the first view i thought it was cool… I ended up finding the documentary bits annoying and i wish they'd opted to make a documentary and a concert not a concumentary (it broke it almost completely when they started showing how the director made the film and the fan bits were just annoying in the midst of it all….

I wish they'd kept in the songs they cut and cut the doc stuff separately, it was cool to see, but it distracted from the premise.

[Sonic Libido]

I think "American Idiot" would've been really great if the production was more stripped down instead of all the vocals having that old pop radio feel…. listening to the stripped down live versions I really like the tracks, but on the UR40s or anything with better quality than my $50 stereo I just can't stand American Idiot's overly poppy production.

[bitchfist]

I am finding Know Your Enemy so bloody annoying,its my least favourite Green Day song ever!!!

[Sonic Libido]

New Green Day is alright. really pickin' up the classic rock vibe… not exactly a flavor I enjoy in my Green Day and certainly not what I signed up for. feels like they're climbing new mountains, which is great… just not sure there's gold at the top of this one. at least they're not making the same album twice or trying to carbon copy AI success and all…. not diggin' billy Joe's long black (dyed looking) hair.

[Sonic Libido]

too bad "F.O.D" isn't on this 🙁

[The Wind]

Who would pay money for that?

[Desensitized]

[quote1243437153=Sonic Libido]at least they're not making the same album twice or trying to carbon copy AI success and all…. not diggin' billy Joe's long black (dyed looking) hair.[/quote1243437153]See, I disagree with that. This feels like a bored band trying to cover International Superhits while playing the All The Young Dudes album by Mott The Hoople on top of it.

I still prefer "mid" Green Day (Insomniac, Nimrod, Warning) above all else. t least American Idiot sounded like Green Day, this sound like a band who listened to too much Green Day and classic rock to write their songs, but forgot to make them memorable.

It says a lot when I'd rather listen to Tight Wad Hill than an entire Green Day album, but that's the case here. There just is not really a standout song to find. They've tread this ground before.

[The Wind]

I've got a new one:

Verses of Mass Hysteria is damn near the exact same as the verses from Deadbeat Holiday.

[Desensitized]

More Rock Band DLC announced! It's more stuff from their shit new album!

Huzzah! Just what we needed, more boring songs.

[The Wind]

I like the three songs being offered this time around.

[Desensitized]

I'm just annoyed that they STILL haven't touched the older stuff.

[The Wind]

[link=http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/12/12/just-announced-green-day-rock-band]Something about a Green Day Rock Band now?[/link]

[Desensitized]

Yeah, heard about that. Seems kinda pointless. It's not like they have anything really difficult to play on any instrument. Should have just stuck with DLC packs.

[Author]

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