Five years after they revived the rock opera, re-ignited political
rock and resurrected their career, Green Day returns with another
concept album that’s bigger, badder and bolder than American
Idiot. Divided into three acts with recurring themes and musical
motifs running throughout, 21st Century Breakdown is another
indictment of rampant American idealism. But where Idiot took on
Bush and his overseas war machine, Breakdown stays on U.S. soil,
surveying the state of religion, welfare and various other collapses as
the two young lovers at the center of the tale navigate their shaky
futures.
Singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong can still be heavy-handed with
his symbolism (last time around, his characters were named St. Jimmy
and Jesus of Suburbia; this time they’re Christian and Gloria), but
21st Century Breakdown contains his best batch of songs since
Dookie. They’re certainly more ambitious than the masturbating
teens he sang about 15 years ago. “Born into Nixon, I was raised in
hell,” he laments on the opening title tune. “My generation is zero.”
From there, Christian and Gloria recount their crushed dreams, lack of
direction and eventual resignation over blasts of punk-rock, sweet pop
and sweeping ballads. But there’s promise on the closing “See the
Light”: “[It’s] never too late,” sings Armstrong on a ’70s-style rocker
that sums up 21st Century Breakdown‘s hopeful uncertainty
in four-and-a-half tightly packed minutes. In other words, not much has
changed in five years. — Michael Gallucci
This article appears in May 13-19, 2009.