Title: American Idiot
Artist: Green Day
Release Date: September 21, 2004
Label: Reprise Records
Rating: +++++
As the saying goes, "There is life in the old dog yet." Even the most convinced critics having Green Day already declared dead have to admit that now. Who would have thought that, after their last record Warning in 2000, this band would be back with the most inventive rock opera of the decade, reaching number one in 19 countries and winning numerous awards including a Grammy for Best Rock Album?
Back in 1994, when the punk-trio from Berkeley, California, released their smash-hit Dookie, their songs dealt mainly with girls, drugs and boredom. However, as their subsequent records could not live up to their earlier success, the band felt the need to take some time to grow up and think about their role in music as well as in life. Soon, singer-songwriter Billy Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool knew that they wanted to push the boundaries of their musical ambition, being determined that their best work was yet to come.
American Idiot, released after four years of producing, is a make or break record for Green Day. They have risked betraying the principles of punk, going into a more muted, acoustic-heavy direction. However, the band reclaims punk's ambition with American Idiot, taking up political themes and denouncing the status quo of American society. With their concept album, inspired by The Who, Meatloaf and other bands of the 60ies, they leave the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge song structure behind, being open for a different way of writing songs without restrictions. Concerning their new style, Armstrong admitted in an interview, "For the first time, we separated from our pasts, from how we were supposed to behave as Green Day. For the first time, we fully accepted the fact that we're rock stars."
American Idiot tells the story of the central character Jesus of Suburbia, an anti-hero living in the suburbs who feels the emptiness in his life and the indifference of people around him, brainwashed by mass media and debased by materialism; therefore, he leaves for the city.
The kick-off for this remarkable journey is the record's first track American Idiot, an energetic catchy tune with thrilling guitar solos and accusing lyrics, criticising the subliminal brainwash Americans underwent during Bush's presidency, especially after 9/11. Armstrong makes references to the unnecessary Iraq War ("Now everybody do the propaganda/ And sing along to the age of paranoia") and the influence of the media, saying that he does not want to follow the crowd that believes everything the government or televison are telling them when he proclaims, "Don't wanna be American Idiot/ One nation controlled by the media/ Information age of hysteria/ Is calling out to Idiot America".
A sensational track on this rock opera is Jesus of Suburbia, one of the two epic songs which build the cornerstones of the album. This epos, combining 5 songs, strikes with the ingenuity with which it is written. It provides the start for the narrative of Jesus' wandering through the "city of the damned", being sick of the status quo when he says, "In a land of make believe/ They don't believe in me". With the crafty arrangement of fast paced passages including hammering drums and cutting lyrics, and poignant ballads with pianos and acoustic guitars, Green Day have an amazing knack of conveying the paranoia and fear of living in America in days after 9/11, but also veer into moving, intimate small-scale character sketches.
Another highlight is the song St. Jimmy, whose namesake, corrupted by his new city life, represents Jesus' alter ego. He is a drug dealing, violent character symbolizing self destruction of people who try to rebel against society when he says, "I'm the patron saint of the denial / With an angel face and a taste for suicidal". This change of personality is also reflected in the music of the song with its fast paced, feverish guitars and assaultive drums.
With the massed chant of Are We the Waiting and the three chord-hit Holiday, the band's range continues to expand and the harsher tracks like Letterbomb are fiercely effective. However, as the underlying motto of the album is rage and love, Green Day also come up with some touching ballads; for example, Wake Me Up When September Ends which is perfectly spotted in the album, speaking sorrow for Jesus' loss of his beloved Whatsername. Personal emotion and experience is also revealed in the line "Like my father's come to pass / twenty years has gone so fast" which refers to Billy Joe Armstrongs's father who died of cancer when Billy was 10 years old.
In Homecoming, the second epic song and grand finale, it seems that Jesus wants to leave his new personality behind and return home, which causes St. Jimmy to commit suicide; however, the band does not give a full resolution of the story. The most striking aspect of this song collection is that it gave Green Day the idea to write a concept album. In the course of creating new material, bassist Mike Dirnt wrote a 30 second song and the rest of the band followed suit. They connected their songs and ended up with the Homecoming, a firework displaying melodies and riffs with different tempos.
Like all great concept albums, American Idiot works on several different levels. It can be taken as a collection of great songs - songs which are as poignant as Green Day at their best and which are well received outside of the larger narrative, as the fiery title anthem proves - but these songs have a different, more lasting impact when taken as a whole. Listeners will be captivated by these 13 tracks full of love, rage, thrill and pure rock. With their masterpiece, equally brilliant in substance and style, Green Day have managed not only to write some of their finest songs, but to scratch on the surface of political dissatisfaction, leaving behind a deep wound. It seems that they are angry at the world, but fairly satisfied with their place in it.
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