Album Review

It had to be a daunting task when Green Day sat down to put together the follow-up to American Idiot, the 2004 album that not only staved off their obscurity but propelled them to levels of critical and commercial success they’d never hit before. On that album, the group took a skewer to the Bush administration with impeccable timing, just as the reactionary fervor of 9/11 had given way to sober reflection on the Iraq war. It also contained the band’s fiercest music since they came barreling out of Cali in the early 90’s to fire up a short-lived punk uprising.

So what would they do for an encore? Well, why not another concept album aiming at Bush yet again, along with all of society’s ills rolled together? Hiring Butch Vig to produce, Green Day has also upped the sonic ante with their newest concept album, 21st Century Breakdown. The scrappy punk of their formative years only appears in brief glimpses; this is brawny stuff. Classics like “Longview” became anthems almost in spite of themselves back in the day, but booming cuts like the title track and “American Eulogy” clearly aim for the rafters.

The good news is that Vig and the boys conjure up enough variety, for the most part, to keep us guessing throughout the long running time. I can’t say that the band ever transcends their more obvious influences on the change-of-pace songs. “Last Night On Earth” takes its cue from some of Jeff Lynne’s lusher productions with ELO, while “Restless Heart Syndrome” sounds like some of the Beatles stately ballads from their late period. Often times the respite doesn’t even last a song; many numbers start with soft piano chords before revving up the engines.

Not that there needs to be any change-of-pace when the bombs Green Day drop are as accurate and explosive as “Know Your Enemy,” “The Static Age,” and “Peacemaker.” “Know Your Enemy” doesn’t have quite the same impact as a first single as “American Idiot,” but Billie Joe Armstrong’s call for self-awareness among youth is timeless. “The Static Age” rides Tre Cool’s thumping beat and a shout-along chorus to glory even as it derides the power of the media to dilute the truth. And “Peacemaker” uses some out-of-left field Latin acoustic guitars and swirling strings to gain its honor as the album’s most dynamic track. Throw in the power-pop precision of “Last Of The American Girls,” and you’ve got the portrait of a band (Mike Dirnt is the third member on bass) that remains ginsu-sharp and gutsy enough to try anything.

The problematic part of 21st Century Breakdown is that it fails to do what the band most wants it to do, because it doesn’t hold up as a cohesive musical statement. Much of that burden falls on Armstrong’s lyrics. I could live with the story, which isn’t so much convoluted as it is nonexistent. After all, many great concept albums have been a narrative mess.

But where Armstrong trips up is his failure to give us something, anything, tangible to chew on. His protagonists, Christian and Gloria, are so abstract that their story never grabs us as would the tale of flesh-and-blood human beings. Their last names should be Plot-Cipher and Metaphor. And we know the setting is Detroit because it’s mentioned in the lyrics, but it might as well be a post-apocalyptic wasteland considering the lack of detail. Since the story is merely a frame Armstrong uses to hang his diatribes, why should we care when Christian reaches out with genuine longing on the album closer, “See The Light”?

What ends up happening is just the opposite of the band’s stated intent: Instead of being a musical statement to be ingested as a whole, 21st Century Breakdown, for all its bombast and brio, ends up being a wearying listening experience. Even the musical audacity becomes problematic in the end, because it’s like the band tried to write 18 singles. All nuance is lost.

And so, the ultimate irony is that the album becomes like so many others in this “Age of the Download” in that its individual songs are ripe for the cherry-picking. It’s just not the feast that Green Day had in mind.

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