Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown

Once in a while I like to put my 2 cents about an album out there. I have to say, with this Green Day album, I am underwhelmed.

But I am not surprised that I am underwhelmed. I have a theory that most bands have an album that will shoot them sky high. The record companies will invest heavily, it will get massive radio play and have numerous Top 10 hits. Think of King of Leon's Only by the Night. For a while last year you couldn't go anywhere without hearing Sex on Fire. There was actually an entire Gossip Girl episode scored from that album, and it shot KoL into the stratosphere. They'd been around for some time, and arguably their earlier albums were better, but Only by the Night made them superstars.

Which was a phenomenon that Green Day became a part of with their last studio album, American Idiot.

After American Idiot, packed as it was with rock operas, political chants and heartfelt ballads, it was going to be almost impossible to follow it up with anything anywhere near that standard.

Sure enough, for the most part 21st Century Breakdown is pretty flat. The first single, Know Your Enemy, contains Green Day's trademark chants, rock solid drum beats and solid vocals, but compared to their other albums, this is definitely more of a Warning, than an American Idiot.

Nevertheless, I do have a fondness for the songs Before the Lobotomy, East Jesus Nowhere and 21 Guns.

Given the 5 year gap between studio albums (although they have released a Best Of and the concert album, Bullet in a Bible since American Idiot), it's a bit sad that this album feels like a set of cast offs from American Idiot than an album to rock to. I was never expecting another album of that calliber - and in fact I was hoping it would take a far different turn, as I always felt American Idiot was a little over-praised and I was well and truly sick of the tracks long before they were removed on mainstream radio playlists.

I think this album will grow on me over time, but unfortunately my first impression was one of being underwhelmed, and while I'm starting to appreciate it a bit more now (on the fourth or fifth run through), it's more out of a loyalty to a band that I love, rather than because they've given me an album I adore.

3 Gopher Guys