Album Review #1---- American Idiot by Green Day

Yes, I thought I'd include album reviews here as well. I think my wife and I have collectively 1200 cd's from various genres ranging from classic rock, rap, country, rock and even classical and opera.

One purchase recently in my book sticks out above 95% of our collection: American Idiot by Green Day, the loveable punks from Berkeley. Definately a giant leap forward from a band that I always knew we'd get a lot more than warped adolesence and habitual drug use from. The album to me has a fantastic plot line that sounds like someone you grew up with or that went to your school growing up. Maybe even someone you know now that hasn't grasped how to make it in our complex society. American Idiot has some serious political overtones about our society and inherent polarity in our two party system. The title characters: Jesus of Suburia is an obvious kid left in the wake of divorce. It's amazing how our society almost martyrs its children.
St. Jimmy is maybe a disciple or even brother of the previous character searching for identity. Then there is the rock n roll girlfriend these guys chase throughout the album all leading to either the "death" of St. Jimmy or maybe Jimmy growing up. I still haven't decided.

What I was intrigued about before I bought the album was the two 9 plus minute songs. They are really almost a collection of melodies similar in style to the last half of Abbey Road. (Editor's note: I am in no way comparing Green Day to the Beatles) The first one, The Jesus of Suburbia borrows a lot from music I have heard before. I hear some West Side Story with the 2 plus 3 beat in the "I don't care" section of the tune. Similar melody to Ring of Fire from Johnny Cash in the "Broken Home" section of the tune. Green Day passes from punk to art rock back to punk seamlessly throughout the record. Nothing is better then when great bands make great records. I'd like to see them do this record live. Their energy as a live act could really propel this.

Billie Joe has always impressed the hell out of me as a song writer. He's right up there in my generation with Kurt Cobain from Nirvana as one of the best songwriters since 1990. Very natural talent for melody in his vocals. Green Day's choice of instrumentation surrounds this perfectly. I truly dig the acoustic guitar Novacaine. The changes in that song surround a painful frustration in those lyrics. It's a war from wanting a cure to ignoring the cure. (sounds like the theme song of a previous blog) Extraordinary Girl is a song that again reminds you of the Beatles.

This is definately a hard CD to take from the deck as you'll let it play over and over.