Green Day: 21st Century Breakdown

[tristy]

I'm only on the title track, and I already want to fucking delete this thing.

[YI]

Eugh.

I was just going to leave my post at that, but someone brought up "East Jesus Nowhere". I made a quote on the last page;

Also, lyrically all the songs seem as though they're extracts of some 'tortured' 14 year old scene kid's poetry blog.

Yeah..."East Jesus Nowhere" is fucking awful, and is basically the perfect example of that quote.

There's a couple of songs I quite liked, but that's it...but I honestly don't know what songs I liked, because it's FAR TOO FUCKING LONG!!!

[BuddyAwesome]

I gave this CD a chance because my girlfriend got it. Horrible.

[Matt]

Just listening to this, I prefer the new version of 21st Century Breakdown (song) without the piano intro, Know Your Enemy is still shit, the rest of it is pretty meh so far. Up to Before the Lobotomy which doesn't sound too bad.

[Maxx]

Eugh.

I was just going to leave my post at that, but someone brought up "East Jesus Nowhere". I made a quote on the last page;

Also, lyrically all the songs seem as though they're extracts of some 'tortured' 14 year old scene kid's poetry blog.

Yeah..."East Jesus Nowhere" is fucking awful, and is basically the perfect example of that quote.

There's a couple of songs I quite liked, but that's it...but I honestly don't know what songs I liked, because it's FAR TOO FUCKING LONG!!!

I'll throw out a guess and say stuff in the second act, after East Jesus but before Horseshoes and Hand Grenades.

Anyways, I love the album, but you know, that was pretty much a given.

Edited May 16, 2009 by Max and Zan

[Matt]

Anyone think Peacemaker sounds like Going Underground (The Jam) in places?

[Clawson]

Honestly, I think it's the best Green Day album I've ever heard. This may be because I'm really tired and not actually listening to the lyrics.

The lyrics on American Idiot annoyed the fuck out of me more than the music did.

[Maxx]

[The Kraig]

I too have tried to enjoy this. Having trouble so far. And this is coming from a guy who has every Green Day song. Nothing really stands out as a good song. It's all 'much of the same'. American Eulogy would be better if it didn't have that fucking long intro.

[Verder]

Coming from a guy who adored the hell out of American Idiot, I've only been truly able to enjoy Song of the Century (yeah... probably not a good sign...), the title track, East Jesus Nowhere, Peacemaker and maybe The Static Age so far. Everything else seems to be so-so, somewhat enjoyable but just doesn't entirely click. Maybe the whole thing will grow on me, sure hope so. A lot of the songs have a really... well, I mean, I understand that in general a band's sound can't be expected to change all that much during the years, but things like the Static Age's opening drums and many others just sound like leftover material from American Idiot. Not to say they sound worse, but they do sound exactly same. To my ear Restless Heart Syndrome's guitar part after Armstrong mutters "...know your enemy..." sounds incredibly similiar to parts of Boulevard of Broken Dreams. The chorus of Static Age sounds like Church on Sunday, etc.

I mentioned I liked East Jesus Nowhere, it's mostly because of the melodies. The lyrics are almost embarassing to listen to. It's all so... "oh we're fucked up, fuck politics, fuck everything around us". It's like, everything, entirely everything is rotten and corrupted and spoiled and Lord knows what else. Like said above, truly bring to mind some 14 year old tortured emo. As a matter of fact, it sounded like a Chris Jericho promo in sung form at times with all the talk about parasites, hypocrites, sycophants and conspiracies

Well, they never used "sycophants" I believe...

[Maxx]

Coming from a guy who adored the hell out of American Idiot, I've only been truly able to enjoy Song of the Century (yeah... probably not a good sign...), the title track, East Jesus Nowhere, Peacemaker and maybe The Static Age so far. Everything else seems to be so-so, somewhat enjoyable but just doesn't entirely click. Maybe the whole thing will grow on me, sure hope so. A lot of the songs have a really... well, I mean, I understand that in general a band's sound can't be expected to change all that much during the years, but things like the Static Age's opening drums and many others just sound like leftover material from American Idiot. Not to say they sound worse, but they do sound exactly same. To my ear Restless Heart Syndrome's guitar part after Armstrong mutters "...know your enemy..." sounds incredibly similiar to parts of Boulevard of Broken Dreams. The chorus of Static Age sounds like Church on Sunday, etc.

I mentioned I liked East Jesus Nowhere, it's mostly because of the melodies. The lyrics are almost embarassing to listen to. It's all so... "oh we're fucked up, fuck politics, fuck everything around us". It's like, everything, entirely everything is rotten and corrupted and spoiled and Lord knows what else. Like said above, truly bring to mind some 14 year old tortured emo. As a matter of fact, it sounded like a Chris Jericho promo in sung form at times with all the talk about parasites, hypocrites, sycophants and conspiracies

Well, they never used "sycophants" I believe...

Pretty much entirely and only about organized religion.

I've been advising people who are having trouble digesting the thing has a whole to listen to the 3 acts on their own. Each one stands out on its own better when you're not comparing it to the rest of the album, as tracks will get lost in the shuffle and whathaveyou.

Edited May 27, 2009 by Maxx

[Iain76er]

Coming from a guy who adored the hell out of American Idiot, I've only been truly able to enjoy Song of the Century (yeah... probably not a good sign...), the title track, East Jesus Nowhere, Peacemaker and maybe The Static Age so far. Everything else seems to be so-so, somewhat enjoyable but just doesn't entirely click. Maybe the whole thing will grow on me, sure hope so. A lot of the songs have a really... well, I mean, I understand that in general a band's sound can't be expected to change all that much during the years, but things like the Static Age's opening drums and many others just sound like leftover material from American Idiot. Not to say they sound worse, but they do sound exactly same. To my ear Restless Heart Syndrome's guitar part after Armstrong mutters "...know your enemy..." sounds incredibly similiar to parts of Boulevard of Broken Dreams. The chorus of Static Age sounds like Church on Sunday, etc.

I mentioned I liked East Jesus Nowhere, it's mostly because of the melodies. The lyrics are almost embarassing to listen to. It's all so... "oh we're fucked up, fuck politics, fuck everything around us". It's like, everything, entirely everything is rotten and corrupted and spoiled and Lord knows what else. Like said above, truly bring to mind some 14 year old tortured emo. As a matter of fact, it sounded like a Chris Jericho promo in sung form at times with all the talk about parasites, hypocrites, sycophants and conspiracies

Well, they never used "sycophants" I believe...

Pretty much entirely and only about organized religion.

I've been advising people who are having trouble digesting the thing has a whole to listen to the 3 acts on their own. Each one stands out on its own better when you're not comparing it to the rest of the album, as tracks will get lost in the shuffle and whathaveyou.

...so to enjoy the album, you shouldn't listen to the whole album?

[Maxx]

Yes because listening to the 3 acts separately isn't listening to the whole album. Right.

They spaced it out like that for a reason, so you could listen to it as if it were 3 separate EPs, or all at once. If people aren't liking it all at once, listen to it piece by piece, was that really a difficult concept to grasp?

[METALMAN]

I downloaded this. I've been in need of a laugh. :/

[I Don't Mind]

I thought the whole album was pretty mediocre. The only things I listen to from it now are East Jesus Nowhere, Peacemaker and Last Night On Earth. Granted, I haven't digested the lyrics to any of this, but I'm trying not to in order to continue enjoying them. East Jesus Nowhere does sound more like Marilyn Manson than Green Day, but with a lot of the shit they put on this album, I've been ready to listen to anything but Green Day from this album. 21 Guns especially pissed me off. It had no right being that long for something so fucking stupid.

[METALMAN]

If they return to their jokey old ways rather than the up their own arsehole nature of "American Idiot" which they took far too seriously I won't object too loudly when their music inevitably gets played everywhere.

It would take something really unexpected for me to get it myself but going by the song titles alone it looks like it will American Idiot part two.

That's actually my favorite Green Day album.

lol good for you lol

I downloaded this. I've been in need of a laugh. :/

So finally got round to listening to this. It's hardly a car crash but it is most definitely too long. Musically solid but I really can't stand Armstrong's voice in a ballad context. Decent voice for poppy-punk songs, yes, but that's because having a good voice isn't of much importance in the field. So yeah, Green Day ditch something they are good at for a bit and try something they're shit at. Fair play to them for trying something new. I don't hate them for it. I just hate the something new because it's shit. Nevertheless, they are pretty decent when they stick to what they're good at.

Ironically my favourite song on the album is a ballady one, being "21 Guns". I think I like it because it sounds a bit like a John Lennon reject, and as we all know, a John Lennon reject sounds like a reject from a Paul McCartney reject compilation album. But that's still good. Only problem with it - barring the lyrics which I'll discuss later - is that it suffers from being too long. If this was three minutes long it would most likely earn a place as the fourth Green Day song on my iPod (other three are When I Come Around, Who Wrote Holden Caulfield and One For The Razorbacks).

However the lyrics bring them down again. Which is a shame. Lyrically Green Day never struck me as being dreadful until "Minority". In truth, lyrics just tend to pass me by unless they are really really dreadfully bad(Sting, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana) or really really exceptionally good(Idlewild, Death Cab For Cutie, Belle & Sebastian, Idlewild, Idlewild, Roddy Woomble when he's not doing Idlewild stuff). I'll let you guess what camp Green Day's last two albums fall into. Sometimes I get embarassed on Billie Joe's behalf.

Edited June 5, 2009 by metalman