After a brutal five-year wait, Green Day finally satiated their fans with a new album, 21st Century Breakdown. It was well worth the wait: each song has an original tune and thoughtful, meaningful lyrics to match.
Admittedly, some of their newer songs bear resemblance to their older work, but that is almost inevitable seeing as they have been putting out music since the early nineties. For example, although track ""¿Viva la Gloria? (Little Girl)"" has a keyboard riff that sounds a lot like a sped-up version of the guitar in ""Misery"" from Warning, the fresh lyrics and catchy music make this song a great candidate for a sure-hit single. Also, ""East Jesus Nowhere"" smuggles guitar parts from earlier songs on American Idiot, like ""Homecoming"" and ""Jesus of Suburbia,"" but lyrically it is probably Green Day's best song to date.
They also offer critiques of society in general and use the comparison of religion to do so, with lyrics from ""East Jesus Nowhere"" reading, ""A fire burns today / Of blasphemy and genocide / The sirens of decay / Will infiltrate the faith fanatics.""
The album is broken up into three main parts: ""Heroes and Cons,"" ""Charlatans and Saints,"" and ""Horseshoes and Handgrenades,"" following the stories of two main characters with obviously religion-laden names, Christian and Gloria. Each of these parts represents a different thread woven into these characters, from ""Christian's Inferno"" to the ""Last of the American Girls."" These characters have much more substance and depth than the more abstract personalities born in American Idiot: the Jesus of Suburbia and St. Jimmy were hardly thought of as actual people even though that is what they were meant to be. 21st Century Breakdown is even easier to relate to than American Idiot, which is already being made into a rock opera. Is Broadway in the future for Green Day? This idea is looking more and more possible.
Since the release of American Idiot, Green Day has been extremely vocal on the political front. They continue to critique Bush's America on 21st Century Breakdown, with lyrics like ""Dream, American dream / I can't even sleep / From the light's early dawn / Scream, America scream / Believe what you see / From heroes and cons."" Their examination of the damage Bush has done to the country is raw and presented poetically by lead singer and lyricist Billie Joe Armstrong through his innate ability to evoke an audience's deepest angst.
The view of our damaged world is far from being candy-coated. With song names like ""Murder City"" and ""American Eulogy,"" Green Day aim to scream their views without censorship, and they do just that. They have even gone as far as refusing to let Wal-Mart stores censor their product for language and content, resulting in Wal-Mart refusing to carry 21st Century Breakdown. Some of their lyrics are too brutally honest for some of America to handle right now, but the guys don't give a shit. Way to stick to your ""21 Guns,"" Green Day.
21st Century Breakdown further demonstrates what American Idiot started to unmask: Green Day is growing up. Their lyrics idyllically reveal their beliefs, both religious and political. Green Day seek to make a statement and to encourage people to speak up about what one believes in. Who would have thought that such acute, insightful music would come from a band named to memorialize a day of continual marijuana consumption? One thing is for certain: Green Day has come a long way from their days of releasing a song about chronic masturbation.
