21st Century Breakdown [PA]

Performer: Green Day
Producer: Green Day; Butch Vig
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Still enamored of the concept of the concept album more than four years after AMERICAN IDIOT, Green Day unveiled its rock-opera sequel, 21ST CENTURY BREAKDOWN, in 2009. Like its predecessor, BREAKDOWN wholeheartedly embraces the iconic punk-pop act's shift to a stadium-filling sound, while also remaining loyal to the San Francisco-based trio's progressive sociopolitical outlook. Even with a president in the White House that outspoken frontman Billie Joe Armstrong supports, he still finds plenty to rail against, with much of BREAKDOWN alluding to the earlier Bush years of the new millennium, particularly the surging, Queen-like title track. Aiding Armstrong and his comrades in their sonic attack against conservative authority is renowned producer (and Garbage member) Butch Vig, best known for helming Nirvana's NEVERMIND. Completely in sync with Green Day's grand vision, Vig helps to create the huge spaces for the band to construct their anthems, as best heard on the resonant anti-war tune "21 Guns." Unabashedly unsubtle and lifted by passionate restlessness, BREAKDOWN succeeds as AMERICAN IDIOT Mark II, proving that Green Day has no intention of scaling back its intriguingly ambitious approach.

Spin (p.85) - "There's some stretching stylistically: Two different songs called 'Viva La Gloria!' open with piano, while the lush, mid-tempo 'Last Night on Earth' and 'Restless Heart Syndrome' ape mid-period Beatles..." Entertainment Weekly (p.56) - "Give credit where thrashing, three-chord credit is due....No matter how arrested their style and subject matter, Green Day remain remarkably good at high-blast anthems that burrow directly into the pogo-ing, lizard-brain id." -- Grade: B Billboard (p.34) - "The album is a call to arms for the digital age, and 20 years into its career, Green Day's ambition continues to dazzle." Q (Magazine) (p.114) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Bold, ambitious and revelling in the chaos of our age, 21ST CENTURY BREAKDOWN is another perfect document of our times." Record Collector (magazine) (p.132) - "Billie Joe Armstrong isn't afraid to spit out exactly what he's feeling, now matter how nihilistic..."

Coming out of the grass-roots Gilman St. punk scene of the early-1990s Bay Area, Green Day exploded into the mainstream with their third album, 1994's DOOKIE. The trio's punk energy and pop hooks, influenced by first-generation punks like the Buzzcocks, in turn inspired a huge legion of punk-pop followers. Their energy level flagged a bit following the smash success of DOOKIE, but the band's enormously successful 2004 Grammy-winning political concept album, AMERICAN IDIOT, proved they were mature artists and far from a one-trick pony.

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