It is easy to scoff at Green Day, but it is also easy to feel affection towards the band. Any claims of ‘punk’ might be overblown, but they’ve also written some great and enjoyable songs, from “Longview” on out. They may be unavoidable smash hits in the mainstream, but they also find fun ways to show up, whether in drummer Tré Cool’s antics on Late Night with David Letterman (QRO Indie on Late Night TV) or being animated (and consumed by the toxic Lake Springfield) in The Simpsons Movie. They can act juvenile, but not self-consciously. And their political statements might not be inspired, and are certainly emotional, but without being self-righteous or emo. You may not have asked for Green Day’s second rock opera in a row, but one can’t begrudge them for doing it. And while much of the over-stuffed opus is forgettable, there are a few gems that remind you why you can’t not like them.
After bursting out of the Bay Area punk scene in the early nineties, Green Day shot to success pretty quickly with Dookie, yet they came to seem less and less essential in their subsequent pop-punk records, with only the out of character stripped ballad “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” leaving a lasting impression in the late nineties. Difficulties between singer/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong and Cool & bassist Mike Dirnt – not to mention having the masters of the now-lost Cigarettes and Valentines stolen in 2003 – would be a kick in the crotch, but the trio turned around, started over, and released American Idiot the following year, a semi-concept ‘rock opera’ that tapped into the youth of the Bush era better than a lot of that administration’s musical critics. It also was a major success, reaching #1 on the charts.
In trying to semi-repeat that semi-concept, Green Day have done some things right, like waiting out the Bush administration – and getting legendary producer Butch Vig (Nirvana’s Nevermind, Smashing Pumpkin’s Siamese Dream) to produce their new record. But most important was that, for all its supposed ambition, American Idiot was never meant to be some masterpiece or era-defining piece of work, but just the band at least giving their all as they responded to the world they were in. And that is something Green Day have been able to do again on 21st Century Breakdown.
Note that this doesn’t necessarily make for an amazing record. Eschewing the nine minute-plus mash-ups of Idiot like “Jesus of Suburbia/City of the Damned/I Don’t Care/Dearly Beloved/Tales of Another Broken Home”, Green Day has instead spread their hour-plus worth of material over eighteen tracks – and most of those are fairly forgettable pop-punk. The political statements are not heavy-handed, but not weighty, either. The band’s tendency to start a song with a static-y, removed Armstrong singing in the background, like some distant radio, just feels repetitive after a while (and in the songs where they don’t explode, you just keep expecting them to).
But then Green Day will pull out something like “Peacemaker”. Smack in the middle of the record, as the whole contraption runs further and further out of gas, the catchy southwestern press of “Peacemaker” isn’t just original for the band; it’s plain original. It is to 21st Century Breakdown like Iowa is to a liberal – just when the goodwill of early single “Know Your Enemy” seems to have disappeared permanently, past the rear horizon of Middle America, here comes the state that gave Obama his first primary victory, and just gave gays the right to marry. What’s more, it’s paired with the following “Last of the American Girls”, which very nicely combines Green Day’s catchy way with base politics and base relationships (guess that would make it what? Minnesota?…).
Of course, from there 21st Century slides again into standard Green Day punk, before being revived near the end by second single “21 Guns”, a pseudo-sequel to Idiot’s young kid in today’s army, “Wake Me Up When September Ends”. At certain moments, Green Day are able to turn their attitudes and energy into something enjoyable without being simplistic, memorable without being overdone. And if they’ve got to go through eighteen songs of a second rock opera to do it, well, we got what we were expecting – and about all that we were looking for – from Green Day.
MP3 Stream: “Peacemaker”
