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Rating: Never really loved Californian punk rock that much, yet the stylistic shift of Green Day in "American Idiot" managed to surprise me. I didn't expect such a band to have so much to say once they moved past their "adolescent" phase (and no kidding, they're in their forties even if they look like they're 15...), yet the album in question followed a rather interesting concept and the lyrics were, more or less, socially engaged, sometimes delivering direct attacks.
The anticipation for the new album, from both the new-kids-on-the-block fans and the longtime fans (who certainly turned up their noses at "American Idiot"), as well as from the critics, was high: "what will they come up with now?"... And here comes the answer. Right from the start, an awful, phony and cold sound jumps out, which sets up a bad predisposition for listening. Yet the bravest (for example, myself) might try to make it to the last track. And discover that... There are very few ideas. Once again, they are working on a concept and the album is divided into three "chapters," but... this time the concept sucks. It deals with the story of a couple of lovers moving through the lusts and illusions of this millennium. Wow. As the single "Know Your Enemy" hinted, the compositions are uninspired and often self-referential. Despite the "Beatles-like" inspiration of some, the multiple acoustic-flavored tracks say nothing noteworthy, especially "Last Night on Earth", among others.
And yet, we must say, the attempt to renew themselves oozes from some tracks on the album, alternating with classic Green Day pop-punk tracks, but it's rare for the band to actually "think outside the box" and tread new paths: it happens on "Peacemaker" or "East Jesus Nowhere", which almost recall the stereotypes of many Manson tracks: they are the only two tracks I would barely save from this whole mishmash... Yes, it's a mishmash we are talking about: a whopping EIGHTEEN tracks that make the album feel ENDLESS.
The work of a legendary producer like Butch Vig (yes, the very one of "Nevermind" by Nirvana and "Gish" and "Siamese Dream" by the Smashing Pumpkins) amounts to little or nothing on this album. The ongoing contradiction between the anger of those who want to "change the world" (often flaunted) and the desire to create stadium choruses certainly emerges.
Is it a lot of hypocrisy or a disorientation due to unexpected success and great expectations?
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 Know Your Enemy (03:10)
Do you know the enemy?
Do you know your enemy?
Well, gotta know the enemy
Do you know the enemy?
Do you know your enemy?
Well, gotta know the enemy
Do you know the enemy?
Do you know your enemy?
Well, gotta know the enemy
Violence is an enemy
Against the enemy
Violence is an energy
Bringing on the fury
The choir infantry
Revolt against the honor to obey
Overthrow the effigy
The vast majority
Burning down the foreman of control
Silence is the enemy
Against your urgency
So rally up the demons of your soul
Do you know the enemy?
Do you know your enemy?
Well, gotta know the enemy
Do you know the enemy?
Do you know your enemy?
Well, gotta know the enemy
The insurgency will rise
When the bloods been sacrificed
Don't be blinded by the lies
In your eyes
Violence is an energy
From here to eternity
Violence is an energy
Silence is the enemy
So gimme gimme revolution
Do you know the enemy?
Do you know your enemy?
Well, gotta know the enemy
Do you know the enemy?
Do you know your enemy?
Well, gotta know the enemy
Overthrow the effigy
The vast majority
Burning down the foreman of control
Silence is the enemy
Against your urgency
So rally up the demons of your soul
09 Peacemaker (03:24)
Well, I've got a fever
A non-believer
I'm in a state of grace
For I am the Caesar
I'm gonna seize the day
Well, call of the banshee hey hey
Hey hey hey hey hey
As God as my witness
The infidels are gonna pay
Well, call the assassin
The orgasm
A spasm of love and hate
For what will divide us?
The righteous and the meek
Well, call of the wild hey hey
Hey hey hey hey hey
Death to the girl at the end of the serenade
Vendetta, sweet vendetta
This Beretta of the night
This fire and the desire
Shots ringing out on a holy parasite
I am a killjoy from Detroit
I drink from a well of rage
I feed off the weakness with all my love
Call up the captain hey hey
Hey hey hey hey hey
Death to the lover that you were dreaming of
This is a stand off
A Molotov cocktail's
On the house
You thought I was a write off
You better think again
Call the peacemaker hey hey
Hey hey hey hey hey
I'm gonna send you back to the place where it all began
Vendetta, sweet vendetta
This Beretta of the night
This fire and the desire
Shots ringing out on a holy parasite
Well now the caretaker's the undertaker
So I'm gonna go out and get the peacemaker
This is the neo-St. Valentine's Massacre
Well call up the Gaza hey hey
Hey hey hey hey hey
And death to the ones at the end of the serenade
Well, death to the ones at the end of the serenade
Well, death to the ones at the end of the serenade
Well, death to the ones at the end of the serenade
14 Horseshoes and Handgrenades (03:14)
I'm not fucking around
I think I'm coming out
All the deceivers and cheaters
I think we've got a bleeder right now
Want you to slap me around
Want you to knock me out
Well, you missed me, kissed me
Now you better kick me down
Maybe you're the runner up
But the first one to lose the race
Almost only really counts
In horseshoes and hand grenades
I'm gonna burn it all down
I'm gonna rip it out
Well, everything you employ was meant for me to destroy
To the ground now
So don't you fuck me around
Because I'll shoot you down
I'm gonna drink, fight and fuck
And I'm pushing my luck all the time now
Maybe you're the runner up
But the first one to lose the race
Almost only really counts
In horseshoes and hand grenades
Demolition, self-destruction
What to annihilate, this age-old contradiction!
Demolition, self-destruction
What to annihilate, this age-old contradiction!
Demolition, self-destruction
What to annihilate, this old age
I'm not fucking around
I think I'm coming out
Well, all the deceivers and cheaters
I've think we've got a bleeder right now
I'm not fucking around
G-L-O-R-I-A
G-L-O-R-I-A
G-L-O-R-I-A
G-L-O-R-I-A!
15 The Static Age (04:16)
Can you hear the sound of the static noise?
Blasting out in stereo
Cater to the class and the paranoid
Music to my nervous system
Advertising love and religion
Murder on the airwaves
Slogans on the brink of corruption
Visions of blasphemy, war and peace
oooh,
Screaming at you
I can't see a thing in the video
I can't hear a sound on the radio
In stereo in the static age
Billboard on the rise in the dawn's landscape
Working your insanity
Tragic a'la madness and concrete
Coca-Cola execution
Conscience on a cross and
Your hearts in a vice
Squeezing out your state of mind
Are what you own that you cannot buy
What a fucking tragedy, strategy
oooh,
Screaming at you.
I can't see a thing in the video
I can't hear a sound on the radio
In stereo in the static age
I can't see a thing in the video
I can't hear a sound on the radio
In stereo in the static age
Hey hey, it's the static age
well This is how the west was won
Hey hey, it's the static age millennium
All I want to know
Is a god-damned thing
Not what's in the medicine
All I want to do is
I want to breathe
Batteries are not included
What's the latest way that a man can die
Screaming hallelujah?
Singing out "the dawn's early light"
The silence of the rotten, forgotten
oooh,
Screaming at you.
I can't see a thing in the video
I can't hear a sound on the radio
In stereo in the static age
I can't see a thing in the video
I can't hear a sound on the radio
In stereo in the static age
I can't see a thing in the video(woah)
I can't hear a sound on the radio(woah)
In stereo in the static age
I can't see a thing in the video(woah)
I can't hear a sound on the radio(woah)
In stereo in the static age
The static age
16 21 Guns (05:21)
Do you know what's worth fighting for?
When it's not worth dying for?
Does it take your breath away
And you feel yourself suffocating?
Does the pain weigh out the pride?
And you look for a place to hide?
Did someone break your heart inside?
You're in ruins
One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I
When you're at the end of the road
And you lost all sense of control
And your thoughts have taken their toll
When your mind breaks the spirit of your soul
Your faith walks on broken glass
And the hangover doesn't pass
Nothing's ever built to last
You're in ruins
One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I
Did you try to live on your own
When you burned down the house and home?
Did you stand too close to the fire
Like a liar looking for forgiveness from a stone?
When it's time to live and let die
And you can't get another try
Something inside this heart has died
You're in ruins
One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky
One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I
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Other reviews
By paolinoz
"This album is not a masterpiece like the previous one, but it also needs to be listened to a lot before judging it."
"Green Day must still be credited for experimenting with their style and often creating interesting results."
By DanielBack
"'21st Century Breakdown' is a cut-and-paste teen pop record, with only a shell of punk rock."
"The album falls into an almost impressive flatness, lacking the energy and spirit that once defined Green Day."
