Haha, the album being released on my birthday. I remember I brought their last album for someone for this Christian club I was in during high school, (I should've been cheap like everyone else though).
.... Even if you are a million miles away, I can still feel you in my bed, near me, touch me, feel me and even at the bottom of the sea, I can still hear you inside my head, telling me, touch me, feel me, and all the time you were telling me lies
Posts: 4654 | Location: New York, NY | Registered: May 03, 2006
From the clips I've heard "Know Your Enemy" is by far the most generic. I'm not sure why it's the first single other than it's repetitive and can get stuck in your head? I'm anxious to hear the whole album as a whole rather than just a single.
Since Green Day were the Nineties punk brats nobody expected to grow up, everything they do comes as a surprise. What's more bizarre: the fact that they sound so ambitious and audacious on their eighth album, or the fact that they even made an eighth album? Either way, the losercore mutts who crashed the radio in 1994 chanting "I got no motivation," with Billie Joe Armstrong wasted on his mom's couch — they've ended up the last band standing, the ones living up to their era's loftiest ideals and still writing their toughest songs long after they should have landed on Sober House. And they did it with a goddamned rock opera.
American Idiot seemed like their career kamikaze — a concept album about American hopes and dreams, with characters named St. Jimmy and Jesus of Suburbia? Nice try! But it not only rescued Green Day from midlife limbo, it charged their musical batteries. With nearly 6 million copies sold and counting, Idiot became the sort of multiplatinum rock blockbuster that isn't supposed to exist anymore, because Green Day blew up into the sort of band that isn't supposed to exist anymore — raging with heart-on-sleeve passion, willing to risk falling on their faces with a grand statement. Even the songs that didn't work or the plot threads that didn't make sense just increased the fun, because Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool were refusing to go down slow.21st Century Breakdown is even better, so masterful and confident it makes Idiot seem like a warm-up. They're back in rock-opera mode, dividing the album into three parts, "Heroes and Cons," "Charlatans and Saints" and "Horseshoes and Handgrenades." But there are no nine-minute excursions this time — only two of the 18 songs crack the five-minute mark — and Green Day focused their ideas into their sharpest, toughest tunes. Armstrong brings a compassionate edge to his snarl, even when he's spitting out self-lacerating lines like, "My generation is zero/I never made it as a working-class hero."
Like American Idiot, 21st Century Breakdown is a Seventies-style epic, telling the story of two young punk lovers on the run in the wreckage of post-Bush America. The heroes are Christian and Gloria, two kids sold out by the church ("East Jesus Nowhere"), the state ("21 Guns") and every adult they've ever believed in ("We are the desperate in the decline/Raised by the bastards of 1969"). Christian's the impulsive, self-destructive one ("Christian's Inferno"), while Gloria's more idealistic and political ("Last of the American Girls"), but they're forced to take care of each other — because nobody else will.
All over the album, Green Day combine punk thrash with their newfound love of classic-rock grandiosity — one moment they're quoting Bikini Kill, the next they're wailing away like it's the final minute of"Jungleland." The title tune is a multipart opus that pays cheeky tribute to a host of 1970s-heartland radio anthems — Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," Sweet's "Fox on the Run," Mott the Hoople's "All the Young Dudes." Armstrong takes a tour around the country, from his hard-luck childhood ("Born into Nixon, I was raised in hell/A welfare child where the teamsters dwelled") to the modern age ("Video games to the towers' fall/Homeland Security could kill us all"). He ends with nothing to show for it except his anger — and the heart to turn that anger into actual songs.
The ballads are their glossiest ever; "Last Night on Earth" could be Air Supply, and don't think for a minute they don't love the idea of ****ing people off with that. But the highlights are the rage-fueled punk anthems. They barrel through Latin-flavored guitar raves ("Peacemaker"), Clash-size bootboy chants ("Know Your Enemy") and four-chord garage slop ("Horseshoes and Handgrenades"). "Last of the American Girls" comes on as a fabulous left-wing love song to a rebel girl — when Armstrong sings, "She won't cooperate," he's giving her the highest compliment he can imagine.
Green Day set their sights on religion this time, with "East Jesus Nowhere" as their anthemic attack on Christian hypocrisy. But mostly they're singing about America waking up from an eight-year nightmare. In the lofty ballad "21 Guns," they even seem to have a kind word or two for disillusioned Bush supporters ("Your faith walks on broken glass/And the hangover doesn't pass").
Part of the thrill on 21st Century Breakdown is that the Green Day guys don't need to be pushing themselves this hard. It's not like there's anyone left for them to compete with. (What, Sponge are gonna do a three-disc adaptation of Moby Dick? Probz not!) Yet the extra strain is audible in the music, and every song adds to the overall vibe of grown men trying way too hard to communicate, challenging themselves along with their audience. They revitalize the whole idea of big-deal rock stars with something to say about the real world. They're keeping promises they never even made, promises left behind by all the high-minded Nineties bands that fell apart along the way. If it's a continual surprise that Green Day are the ones to pick up the torch and run with it, that's part of what makes 21st Century Breakdown so fresh and vital — Green Day sound like they're as shocked as anyone else.
www.greendayauthority.com has posted 6 of the new songs. radio stations were previewing them today. check them out...this album goes beyond american idiot. idk why Know Your Enemy is even on this CD...it pales in comparison to the rest of these.
21 Guns is epic.
Does this have any shot at album of the year? Based on these six songs, this album in quality may surpass American Idiot. As a GD fan, I was honestly expecting a let down b/c..well...how do you follow up American Idiot? This goes beyond my wildest expectations.
I think 21 Guns would be a great summer song. Whether it gets released as a single or not I can already tell I'll be blasting this one in my car all summer long.
I will check this out this weekend. Thanks for the links! I am encouraged that you liked it. I really liked American Idiot. Looking forward to hearing this one.
Band won’t censor its songs to comply with the retailer’s rules
The Associated Press updated 12:35 p.m. CT, Thurs., May 21, 2009
NEW YORK - Green Day has the most popular CD in the country, but you won’t be able to find it at your local Wal-Mart.
The band says the giant superstore chain refused to stock its latest CD, “21st Century Breakdown,” because Wal-Mart wanted the album edited for language and content, and they refused.
“Wal-Mart’s become the biggest retail outlet in the country, but they won’t carry our record because they wanted us to censor it,” frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said in a recent interview.
While Wal-Mart sells CDs from acts known for raunchy content, including Eminem’s latest, they offer customers the “clean” version of those CDs, which are edited for content that may be objectionable. But in Armstrong’s view, “There’s nothing dirty about our record.”
“They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there,” he said. “We just said no. We’ve never done it before. You feel like you’re in 1953 or something.”
“21st Century Breakdown” contains curses and some references considered adult.
Wal-Mart said that it’s the company’s long-standing policy not to stock any CD with a parental advisory sticker.
“As with all music, it is up to the artist or label to decide if they want to market different variations of an album to sell, including a version that would remove a PA rating,” Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O’Brien said. “The label and artist in this case have decided not to do so, so we unfortunately can not offer the CD.”
But bassist Mike Dirnt said: “As the biggest record store in the America, they should probably have an obligation to sell people the correct art.”
Not being sold at Wal-Mart didn’t stop the band — which kicks off a U.S. tour summer tour in Seattle on July 3 — from landing at the top of the album charts this week. “21st Century Breakdown” sold about 215,000 copies since it’s debut on Friday.
The album is the follow-up to their multiplatinum, Grammy-winning CD “American Idiot,” and like that album, deals with weighty topics. While “American Idiot” spoke to the frustration over the presidency of George W. Bush and the Iraq War, this CD speaks to the loss of innocence and confusion in today’s society.
While Armstrong, Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool are still top-sellers without Wal-Mart, Armstrong said the store’s policy is disappointing, considering it has become the dominant seller of CDs with the decline of traditional music stores.
“If you think about bands that are struggling or smaller than Green Day ... to think that to get your record out in places like that, but they won’t carry it because of the content and you have to censor yourself,” he said. “I mean, what does that say to a young kid who’s trying to speak his mind making a record for the first time? It’s like a game that you have to play. You have to refuse to play it.”
My immediate reaction is that it's fantastic...but my god, it's long.
Grammy FYC: Kanye West, 808s & Heartbreak; Black Eyed Peas, The E.N.D.; John Legend, Evolver; Paolo Nutini, Sunny Side Up; David Guetta, One Love; Kelly Clarkson, "Already Gone"; Jordin Sparks, "Battlefield"; Kings Of Leon, "Use Somebody"; Maxwell, "Pretty Wings"
I'm a little disappointed in this album. Not as good as American Idiot IMO. The only other single worthy song for me is 21 Guns. I expected more from them. And I can't stand Know Your Enemy. It's way too familiar territory for them and too repetitive
