Apparently it is. :( I'm sick, so I figured I might as well do something. So, I decided I should review 21st Century Breakdown. Often billed as a "Rock Opera", 21st Century Breakdown is seen as a departure for Green Day from the type of music they used to write. Or maybe that was American Idiot. Well, anyways, I have to say that 21st Century Breakdown is dramatically different from Green Day of the 90's and has triggered hoards of people leaving comments on Youtube that say something like "I miss the old Green Day, it was so much better" or "Real Green Day fans like all of their music." I have to disagree with both. Why? While the old Green Day was fantastic, the new Green Day is different. It's like trying to compare A7X and Florence + the Machine. You can't. And "Real Green Day fans" don't have to like all of their music. The reason we were all Green Day "fans" in the first place is because we liked their music. If a band makes a crappy album, then it's a crappy album. Saying that you should like all the music of a certain band is bogus - it's like buying things for the brand, regardless of price or functionality. You can't just like something because of the band that made it - the MUSIC is what is most important. So without farther interruption, I will start writing about 21st Century Breakdown. Thanks for bearing with me and this long rant/intro paragraph.
21st Century Breakdown kicks off with "Song of The Century" which seems to be kind of static-y and like it's on the radio or something. Then it jumps into 21st Century Breakdown, which warns us about the upcoming war, and loads of political crap like that mixed into it (Ok, fine, maybe that's the entire album). That aside, 21st Century Breakdown is a pretty good song. My favorite lyrics have to be "We are the class of, the class of 13" not because they are genius or anything, but because they refer to Billie Joe Armstrong's son, who happens to be around our age-ish. Not really, but I just thought it was rather brilliant. "Oh dream, America dream" also resonates with me because I think that that line is rather true. America has too many dreamers and not enough do-ers.
Then it goes in to "Know Your Enemy" which I think is a rather overplayed song and for me personally, has negative connotations because as I had mentioned in an earlier post, this particular song triggered as riot of pretenders going around with their "I'm so badass" face on. Keep in mind that these are the people who think that Justin Bieber is hot and Miley Cyrus is a good role model and listen to mainstream R&B with its degrading, meaningless lyrics 24/7. Nothing I hate more than people who are fake. So "Know Your Enemy" is a *meh* reaction song.
Then comes "Viva La Gloria" and this song just blew me away. It goes from the super melodic and beautiful piano intro into a mellow section with Billie Joe Armstrong singing about a girl in an idealistic world and the coming of "the end" to it. GENIUS! Then BAM! into a punk rock anthem which I can't seem to get out of my head. <3 LOVE <3 LOVE<3 LOVE to the infinity. Arguably, this is the best song on the album and without a question, my favorite song on the album.
Then it goes into "Before the Lobotomy" with its guitar arpeggios at the beginning and Billie Joe Armstrong's AMAZING voice and an intro into yet another punk rock anthem which deals with forgetting and remembering the good old days which were so much better then the present. Note: this is the song where the title of this post comes from.
After "Before the Lobotomy" comes "Christian's Inferno". For some reason, the intro of "Christian's Inferno" reminds me of the beginning of the Nirvana song "Very Ape". IDK, maybe it's just the static-y part. Other than that, "Christian's Inferno" is rather repetitive with Billie Joe Armstrong singing "Whoa! Christian's inferno" over and over again and an angst filled part in the middle with that same static-y effect.
"Christian's Inferno" leads into the ballad "Last Night on Earth" which I find rather sentimental and contemplative, albeit rather romantic. Love, yeah, yeah, whatever.
"East Jesus Nowhere" follows it and has a rather cool intro - it sounds like someone switching from radio station to radio station and as usual, it is rather angst-y and critical upon society, especially the line "In the church of wishful thinking" (which always makes me laugh because it's so true) It also touches on the theme of oppression with the line "the cops of the new religion"and "a fire burns today of blasphemy and genocide" and warns us about the future.
"Peacemaker" also has a rather interesting beginning which for some reason has always reminded me of eating in an Italian restaurant. Weird, right? Maybe it's just the laughter and the music all spliced together. "Peacemaker" it a pretty good song over all. It also seems to me somewhat mariachi inspired because of riffs used.
"Last Of The American Girls" is a rather interesting song - it describes basically the end of the world with the imagery of a girl who epitomizes it. I really like this song though, because it's social commentary is genius with the lyrics.
"Murder City" has a intro that sounds like a hybrid of a bomb ticking about to go off and an alarm clock ringing. It's about the BART shooting on New Year's two years ago (the year 21st Century Breakdown came out) as revealed by Billie Joe Armstrong at the Green Day concert I went to during the 21st Century Breakdown tour. To me, this song is both overwhelmingly real and a spot on interpretation of the BART shooting. I've been to the very BART station where someone was shot so it's real to me - maybe even a little too real.
This has turned out to be a very long blog post so I think I'll stop. Lookout (Yes, no space on purpose, it is a Green Day reference) for 21st Century Breakdown review part 2 later.
Oh, and I'm open to request, so if you would like me to blog about something in particular please leave a comment. Really. I'm that bored. Also, if you do read this blog, please subscribe or leave a comment or something, because often, I feel like I'm talking to myself...
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