Green Day are no Idiots (American Idiot: Parental Advisory - Green Day)

Member Name: kylecoare

Product:	American Idiot: Parental Advisory - Green Day
Date:	12/12/04 (1579 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Vocals, Diversity in styles, Catchy tunes

Disadvantages: A couple of fillers

GREEN DAY
AMERICAN IDIOT
2004
REPRISE RECORDS.


So having been away from the Internet for way too long, I actually missed out on writing a review on this fine album when it was released, but the good thing is that it’s given me even more time to listen to it and give an honest opinion, so here we go.

Green Day, as anyone that has read any of my reviews will know, are one of my favourite bands.
They formed way back in the middle to late 80’s, when school friends Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt decided that they would start playing punk rock.
At first they called themselves ‘Sweet Children’, but shortly afterwards decided to change their name to ‘Green Day’.
They released their first E.P, named after their previous band name, in 1987 on a small indie label called Skene records, this E.P was later added to the bands second album, ‘Kerplunk’.

After the first E.P the band went on to record two albums on the massively underrated indie label, ‘Lookout Records’, then all of a sudden in 1994 they were everywhere, with the release of the bands breakthrough album, ’Dookie’, which was their first major label album and contained such hits as ‘Longview’, ‘Basket Case’ and ‘when I come around’.

After the huge success of ‘Dookie’ the band went on to record a further 3 albums, ‘Insomnia’, ‘Nimrod’ and ‘Warning’.
These all sold well, although by no means as well as ‘Dookie’

So four years after their last studio album, Green Day are back with a new sound and a new view of the world.


BAND MEMBERS

The band consists of a basic three piece.

Billie Joe Armstrong - Guitar and Lead Vocals.
Mike Dirnt - Bass and Backing Vocals.
Tre Cool - Drums and Backing Vocals.

The album was produced by Rob Cavallo and Green day, Cavallo also plays the piano on some songs.


THE ALBUM

The album is 13 tracks long, with a running time of 57 minutes.


TRACK ONE - AMERICAN IDIOT

As the first chords rip through this track you instantly think back to earlier albums by the band, so in a lot of ways it’s a bit of a false start to the album, but seeing how well it did in the charts people seemed to like it.

The song is about the state of things in America, with the Bush government and its wars, it’s also about how the media is really running the country.
The song features a great little riff which digs its way into the section of your brain which stores riffs for when you’re bored.
Meaning you will be humming this one for days to come!

Along with the guitar riff we can also hear some great drumming by Mr. Cool, which shows why he is one of the most respected rock drummers.

Vocally this is a good performance by Billie Joe, although by no means the finest on this album.



TRACK TWO - JESUS OF SUBURBIA

So this is where the album really starts, with this nine minute rock opera epic.
The song is split into 5 different sections all joining together to tell the story of the main character's of the album.

You see this isn’t any old Green Day album, infact this is one long story about the state of affairs in America and how it affects the people.
The characters from this song turn up all over the album, and make it an even more enjoyable listen.

Anyway back to the song!
The first part of the song starts with a few ringing chords and Billie’s strong vocals coming out really clear above the music.
The tune is fairly slow, with a sort of 60’s tinge to it, with a lot of oohs and aahs in the background, and also a bit of piano reminiscent of Meat Loaf or Elton John.
Then all of a sudden we are into the second section of the tune, which starts as a quite piano driven affair but soon lets the guitars through to give a quite rocking chorus.
As with the first section this is a fairly slow tune, which lets Billie’s Vocals do their work.
The third part see’s Billie in a quite angry mood, and the tone of the track gets a bit darker as we start to see that the main character is angry at the things going on around him.
Then the track moves to an altogether different type of tune, which is almost acoustic with a nice lullaby type theme to it, again this shows some more styles to Billie’s vocals.
In the last section of the song we here the main character decide to leave his little suburb and enter the big bad world, this track has a real feel of defiance and you feel the main character wants to prove himself.

Musically the whole song has to be heard from start to finish, there really isn’t an easy way to describe it, basically it is anything you want it to be, and there are all sorts of different genres and sounds on this one song.


TRACK THREE - HOLIDAY

Following on from a 9 minute masterpiece isn’t an easy thing to do but somehow Green Day manage it with this song.
The tune opens with a nice jaunty riff which starts semi acoustically then builds up to an altogether more rocking piece.
The song is very catchy and has everything in its right place, with some well placed backing vocals and drums.
About half way through the song starts to take a darker tone, with a section which is clearly slating the Government and how it wants to sort out all its problems with bombs and guns.


TRACK FOUR - BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS

This, the second single from the album, is actually one of my least favourites on the album.
Musically it’s very good, with a sort of shimery guitar riff just holding the track together with some piano and drums building the rest of the musical base.
Vocally again it’s a great performance from Billie Joe proving to some people that he can actually sing.

Unfortunately the problem is in the actual lyrics, they seem a bit shallow and simple, with most of the song being taken up by one line.
Not a bad song, but not up with the best on this album.


TRACK FIVE - ARE WE THE WAITING

Musically this track has an almost Christmassy tune, with a slow tempo and some nice guitar work.
The chorus is an anthemic arms in the air lighters aflame sort of group chant.
Vocally Billie puts in another top notch performance, but again I found this song to lack a little spark.


TRACK SIX - ST JIMMY

This is just a straightforward punk rock run through really, reminiscent of older punk bands from the late 70’s and early 80’s.
Loud fast and angry sounding, which although not as imaginative as the rest of the album really brings the story onwards and also introduces you to another main character, whose attitude to life really fits with the music and feel of the song.

Vocally this isn’t really easy to judge seeing as this sort of track isn’t about how good your vocals are, this does however show that Billie can pull off a very good Punk vocal.


TRACK SEVEN - GIVE ME NOVACAINE

One of my favourite songs on the album, this is possibly the best ive ever heard Billie sing, and also the most unGreenday like song ive heard them do.

The song opens with a cool drum intro which is soon joined by some jingly guitar chords, giving an almost dreamlike base to the main song, during the chorus this is ripped apart by some loud rocking guitars and loud drum beats, giving a feeling of pain.

As I said this is probably the best ive heard Billie singing, he puts a lot of emotion into his voice and has definitely proven he can sing now!


TRACK EIGHT - SHES A REBEL

Introducing another new character to the story we have this poppy punk tune, which is reminiscent of the bands Insomnia period songs.
Musically this is fairly simple stuff, three chord catchy punky guitars played over a simple but effective drum beat.

This song shows why so many fans still call them a punk band, when its clear they have changed over the years.


TRACK NINE - EXTRAORDINARY GIRL

Another song that just doesn’t sound like Green Day, but again this album is all the better due to the diversity of the tunes on offer.

Opening with an almost tribal bongo intro this soon gives way to a song that would sit quite nicely on an early Beatles or Kinks album, with some fantastic duel vocal harmonies and a soft jangely guitar riff ripped straight from the 60’s and punked up a little.

Vocally Billie again puts all his heart and soul into the song, with another top performance.


TRACK TEN - LETTERBOMB

This is another delve back into the bands earlier albums, bringing another perfect piece of pop punk to the album.
Although musically it sounds like earlier Green Day, lyrically and vocally you can really see how this band has grown over the years.

This shows that you don’t always need loads of instruments and special effects to make a fantastic catchy pop tune, which will lodge itself into your head after a couple of listens.


TRACK ELEVEN - WAKE ME UP WHEN SEPTEMBER ENDS.

This is a sad song, about Billie’s Father passing away when he was ten years old, and how each year the month of September brings him so much pain, Its also about 9-11.

Musically this is a slow tune reminiscent of Green day’s earlier ‘Time of your life’ tune, with just a simple semi acoustic guitar plucking away in the background, over some orchestral instruments.

Again Billie puts a lot of effort into this song, and its obviously quite an hard song for him to play.


TRACK TWELVE - HOMECOMING

This is the second of the five part songs, and again really mixes the styles and sounds to make a really interesting listen.

The first part of the song starts with Billie singing over a very low guitar, this soon gives way to a rocking tune which is driven by its almost military style drumbeat.
This really is a catchy number, although the story line is fairly dark, with one of the main characters killing himself.

The whole song again goes through so many changes that its hard to actually review it, this is one of those songs that you just have to hear for yourself .

The song has elements of many great artists over the years, with some sections having a tinge of Queen some Meat Loaf and a dose of the who.

Personally I find that this isn’t as good as the first 5 parter, but its still a very interesting tune.


TRACK THIRTEEN - WHATSERNAME

Personally I would have finished this album at the end of the last song, as I just don’t feel that much for this song, its not that it’s a bad tune or anything, but it just doesn’t seem to fit after the last song.

It’s a slow chugging song, with some very thoughtful vocals by Billie, but all in all I find it a bit of a filler.


OVERALL.

Well there you go, Green Day have really come of age on this album, and have again reinvented their sound and style, which some fans will either love or hate.
Personally I think it’s a great piece of Art, with so much going on throughout the album.

The only way to truly get an opinion on this album is to actually listen to it, as its not an easy one to describe, one minute its fairly straight forward Green Day by numbers then suddenly your listening to an altogether different band.

For further information on this and all of Green Day’s other albums you could visit their website.

www.greenday.com

You could also check out some of my other Green Day reviews!

Thanks for reading, sorry if it seemed a bit sloppy but im out of practise!

Kyle

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