Product Description
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Produced by Rob Cavallo, American Idiot is not only Green Day's
most ambitious album to date, but also perhaps one of the most
audacious efforts in the history of punk. Centred around two
five-part, nine minute epics ("Jesus Of Suburbia" and
"Homecoming"), 'American Idiot' is an expansive and ly
crafted concept album, detailing the alienation and
disillusionment of the American citizen under Bush's post-War On
Terror administration. "Jesus Of Suburbia" sees Green Day
crossing genres at will to convey their story, mixing stomping
melodic punk with elements of classic American rock, sun-kissed
harmonies, a hint of psychedelia and Billie Joe singing
plaintively over a lone acoustic. Elsewhere, Green Day's talent
for reflective, melancholy sounds is pushed to the forefront with
"Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" which finds them at their evocative
best, and with "Are We The Waiting", possibly the most beautiful
song ever to feature an old-school terrace chant. But it's with
"When September Ends" that Green Day fully realise their strength
at combining the tender with the powerful. The title-track rages
with the aggression and infectiousness that typifies the best of
the band's prior work, whilst a host of other tracks including
the breakneck punk of "St Jimmy" and the power-pop of
"Extraordinary Girl" remind us exactly why Green Day were so
good in the first place.
.co.uk
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There's a clenched fist grasping a heart-shaped hand grenade on
the cover of American Idiot, a militant mural presumably designed
to inform us that Californian punk-pop vets Green Day love
America but hate what's becoming of it. Inferences aside, you
could argue that American Idiot is a suspect device--a punk
concept album/rock opera primed to blow up in the faces of the
ruling right-wing American classes but which could just as easily
leave splattered egg on the faces of the insurrectionists. The
concept is fuzzy (telly-brainwashed teenage runaway falls in with
the wrong crowd, something or other happens with drugs, rock and
a character called "Whatsername") and the political protestations
against the metaphorical Arrnies and Dubyas are mere slapstick
custard pies compared with the Dead Kennedys' CIA-bothering
debunking of Reaganomics. However, something about American Idiot
both excites and rings true whilst simultaneously beggaring
belief. Spanning influences from The Who's Tommy to Husker Du's
Zen Arcade, American Idiot has the listener living in
cliff-hanging fear of an unexpected Richie Blackmore guitar solo
or Tarkus-style ELP exposition but actually never strays from
Buzzcockian melodiousness or phlegm-drenched rifferama even when
things get ridiculous. "Homecoming", for example, is probably the
best amalgamation of The Clash, Pink Floyd's The Wall, Millwall
football supporters terrace chants, Deep Purple, The Levellers,
Bob Mould, UK Subs, Rush, Pete Townsend and The Tubes you'll ever
hear. American Idiot could be brave or it could be stupid, but it
really can't be ignored. --Kevin Maidment