Upon Green Day’s return, we find them comparing brainwashed youths
to sodomized dogs, criticizing the capitalist media that helped make
them millionaires, and dropping the “N”-word. Oh, don’t worry, liberal
punkers; they insert that nasty word into the mouth of a
neo-conservative false prophet of the class war.
21st Century Breakdown is framed as an arch response to the
post-Bush landscape of contemporary America, proving that Green Day has
never lost their genre’s tradition of snide social critique; it makes
for a lovely addendum to the band’s origin myth of a young, doe-eyed
Billie Joe attending Operation Ivy shows and saying, “I want to start a
band like that.” The religious right is squarely in their
crosshairs on tracks like “East Jesus Nowhere” and “Christian’s
Inferno,” in which BJ proclaims, “I am the atom bomb / I am your chosen
one,” invoking himself as a punk rock Antichrist. Anthemic gems like
the lead single “Know Your Enemy” and “Last of the American Girls”
singe, even when the lyrics rely heavily on clichéd platitudes
about nonconformity.
Green Day has changed remarkably little over the last 20 years.
Maybe the most overt difference is the addition of tepid rock ballads
to their repertoire (21st Century Breakdown delivers on that
front with “Last Night on Earth,” “Restless Heart Syndrome” and “21
Guns”). Here’s an instance where parity doesn’t preclude quality: Green
Day remains a band you can count on, and their latest doesn’t
disappoint. It’s a sprawling, potty-mouthed, pop-punk masterpiece about
the début de siècle.
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2009.
