Having been a diehard fan of Green Day since the '90s, the new album has not failed to impress me. Green Day's latest live album Awesome as Fuck is the first live release since the explosively popular Bullet in a Bible in 2005. Although the new album is reminiscent of the original live punk-pop energy, it generates its own edge that will continue to draw in listeners, new and old.
The driving beats and rebellious lyrics always deliver what is expected of them, yet the band manages to bring something new to the table. The album includes everything from the punk sounds of their first album, 1039/Smoothed Out, Slappy Hours, released two decades ago, all the way through the recent opera rock that was heard in American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown.
The album opens calmly with the most recent chart hits from 21st Century Breakdown including ""Know Your Enemy"" and ""East Jesus Nowhere."" Although these tracks are pretty quality and catchy, it seems as though the group is playing what is popular in popular culture, not reviving the defiant and unruly messages of their original image.
The album does improve slightly as it continues with American Idiot tracks sprinkled throughout the lineup, including ""Holiday"" and ""Letterbomb,"" and even though I love the music, it's not what I would call Green Day's highest quality tracks. This is the point where some would refer to the band as more of a group with mainstream ideals, and the album here so far does not do a great job of proving them wrong.
However, as I myself have come to expect from Green Day, the album takes a one-eighty with the very next track. ""Burnout"", a hit from Dookie. This takes the album back to the very best version of Green Day that true fans have come to know and love. The track ""J.A.R."" depicts a guy who wants to be his own man and not what society tells him to be: ""But now I see I'm mortal, too/I can't live my life like you/Got to live it up, while life goes on.""
This song, and the rest of the album, successfully revives the 18-year-olds that made up Green Day that came straight out of Oakland, California. This is the Green Day that earned the fame, this is the Green Day that owns the stage, and this is the Green Day that won't lie down and let society walk all over them.
The album rounds itself out with what are the greatest tracks that Green Day has ever recorded. ""Good Riddance"" and ""Christie Road,"" two major classics in the band's repertoire, are neither completely rebellious nor angry, but are lighter and much more universal message. The songs depict being in a place you love and having the time of your life, and these particular tracks could not be beat, especially for the closing of yet another epic chapter in the history of Green Day.
Honestly, it would be hard work to find someone who was not impressed with the energy and roaring emotion of a Green Day concert or album. In this collection of songs, and pretty much any other Green Day album you could find, the band is true to their original image, which is hard to find in this era. The mix of songs and even genres within the music is pure genius, and it seems impossible for Green Day to waver. All in all, the title of their latest CD could not describe the band better. Green Day really is awesome as fuck.
