The Context: First of all let’s set one thing straight, those that claimed Green Day ‘Sold Out’ as a punk band with 2004’s sublime American Idiot album are both talking bullshite and missing the fundamental principles of punk ethos. Rather than rest on their well-honed laurels and spent the rest of their career spawning three minute pop-punk sing-along’s they decided to offer themselves up for severe scrutiny and possible/probable humiliation by releasing an ingenious concept album both musically and in scope. Having taken some much need time off following the furore that surrounded the last release Green Day have returned for another stab at ‘Rock Opera’ glory.
The Opinion: The warning signs were there in the form of lead-off single 'Know Your Enemy' where as 'American Idiot' demanded attention from first listen with its brash bravado and raucous swagger the new single sounded rather bland and ill-fated in comparison. It has all the trademarks of a classic Green Day song yet somehow without any of the energy and urgency that’s usually associated.
Split into three acts of technically six songs apiece the opening salvo is almost an unmitigated disaster that just sounds tired and uninspiring. While American Idiot as an album re-defined the bands sound you'd expect this album to further push the envelope, in fact it sounds much the same without ever reaching its predecessors dizzying heights. There are brief moments of promise early on, however most are hidden beneath a two-minute turgid piano or acoustic introduction - a device that occurs so often that it becomes frustratingly formulaic, the exact musical consequence that their move away standardised pop-punk was supposed to prevent.
Thankfully things improve ten-fold in the second act as the band and the album finally settles into a far more enjoyable groove. 'East Jesus Nowhere' sets it on the right track by aping the baseline and lo-fi vocal middle-eight from early career masterpiece 'Hitchin’ a Ride' while 'Peacemaker' is both playful and inventive, with Billie Joe finally unleashing some of the snarling and witty lyricism which is sorely absent early on. 'Last of the American Girls' is hardly re-inventing the Green Day wheel but it’s a nice track regardless. It's a song that would nestle neatly into the middle of the pack on most of their previous output yet, in a sad indictment of this record as a whole, stands out as easily as one of the highlights. 'Murder City' is a classic no-frills Green Day album track in the fact that it feels like it’s been knocked together in about half an hour and as a result sounds wonderfully refreshing compared to the rest of the albums polished swoonings.
Crushingly just as the album picks up pace and your spirits with it things take a turn for the worse. 'Little Girl'isn’t a bad song per-se it’s just that it sounds dated on the back of My Chemical Romance’s own polka-infused madness 'Mama'. 'Horseshoes and Handgrenades' sounds like The Hives...need I say more – It sounds like the fucking Hives while The Static Age is a hum-drum affair which despite wanting to dislike for both being as bland as fizzy-water and using the repetitive age-old couplet of ‘Radio’ and ‘Video’, I just cant, It’s bloody catchy, but miserably so.
'21 Guns' is very dreary indeed yet could be a huge grower in the brief moment it has before mainstream radio gets its mucky fingers all over it and bleeds it dry, because one things is for sure – it’s going to be a mammoth hit single. The chorus is a decent ditty with a nice delayed vocal melody but the verses in part sees Armstrong lyrically at his cringe-worthy worst. Penultimate track 'American Eulogy' is split into two parts and while the opening salvo falls into the same listen and wince category as the track before the second-half is faultless - A fantastic, thunderous slab of Joe Strummer-esque snotty punk rock that very few bands are capable of writing as well as Green Day.
Joyously the album finishes on a high with the finest moment of the whole show. It’s classic ‘slow-build verse leading to rapturous chorus’ Green Day as guitars swirl and Tre Cool “beats the shit out the drums” as he once proudly pronounced on record.
The Conclusion: The over-whelming feeling is one of frustration, not at how disappointing it sounds as a whole on first listen but because of the brief moments of sheer brilliance that are scattered through it’s running time. With their new found political conscience Green Day are a band that so desperately want to be relevant that it’s had the completely adverse effect on their songs. Each and every line of dialogue reads like a slogan for the ‘Blue Banana’ generation, a bumper-sticker waiting to be printed and as a result the whole thing sounds over-thought and over-wrought and painfully self-important.
The most beleaguering thing is that the album sounds exactly as you expected it would; just half as good and nowhere near as infectious.
3 / 5
A.J
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