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Rating: Definitely this album is one of the most anticipated of 2009, Green Day have written many beautiful songs but for almost 10 years, since Dookie, they haven't released a decent album until 2004, with American Idiot, which I think is one of the best of the decade 2000 - 2010, even though there's still 1 year to say that, and that's why it was a highly awaited return, everyone wants to see if American Idiot was just an exception or if Green Day is indeed back on track at 100%.
"21st Century Breakdown" takes up the structure of the previous record: it is therefore a concept album, with 18 songs, perhaps too many, but unlike the previous one, it doesn't contain tracks lasting 9 minutes that are a combination of multiple songs, only the 17 but it still lasts less than 5 minutes.
If the structure can be defined as similar, the style is completely different. The album obviously contains those hard rock punk riffs that have characterized the band over the years but in many songs, the piano is used, giving more melody and tranquility, not that Green Day isn't themselves anymore, their mark is felt, but let's say they wanted to innovate, not always successfully, never abandoning their tone.
The first track "Song for The Century" is an intro, the second is the title track, very nice, rocky, engaging, an excellent track to use as an opening for a record.
The 3rd track is the single being played these days, "Kill Your Enemy", a track that sounds very good, in which the group doesn't say anything new about their style, but it's still enjoyable and will surely last.
"Viva La Gloria", opens like a melodic ballad, with a nice piano intro, very orchestral with some violins in the background, then reaching the classic punk chorus
Track 5 is called "Before Lobotomy", it has somewhat strange and experimental sounds that at first capture but after a while, become tiresome.
"Christian's Inferno" is the fastest and harshest on the record, a sort of return to the roots, it's the "Saint Jimmy" of this album, in short.
Track 7, "Last Night On Earth", is another ballad that opens with the piano, with a Beatles-like atmosphere, but maybe it's a bit monotonous.
"East Jesus Nowhere" is another nice burst of energy, powerful and fast, just as only Green Day knows how, but it slightly recalls "Hitchin a Ride".
The 9th track is called "Peacemaker", it is an experimental track for Green Day's style, very successful and shows how this band wants to evolve and not always offer the same things
"Last Of American Girls" is the 10th, offers nothing new and in fact, it's the same as 1000 other Green Day songs, however, it is still engaging and immediately captivating.
Number 11 is called "Murder City", another track in full Green Day style, very catchy, that takes up the sounds of American Idiot, and although it is still a nice song, it feels very déjà vu.
The 12th is called "Viva La Gloria Little Girl", it opens with a piano piece in tarantella style, perhaps one of the most experimental in the album, referring to somewhat gypsy and roma sounds.
"Restless Heart Syndrome" is the 13th, this one is also a rather melodic song, characterized by keyboards and acoustic guitars, a ballad, but maybe a bit too weak, with some parts that remind of Boulevard Of Broken Dreams.
"Horseshores And Handgrenades", the 14th, once again offers the style for which the band became known, very catchy and hard riffs, but here too, although it's a nice piece, it feels very déjà vu.
The 15th is "The Static Age", opens with a drum base in the foreground, then explodes with guitars, this is also a melodic track but at the same time rocky.
"21 Guns", the 16th, is the longest track on the album, almost 6 minutes, a song with melodic verses, reminiscent of "What If God Was One Of Us", and a chorus where electric guitars explode, certainly a potential single.
Track 17 is a two-act track, which reprises the intro, links back to the experiments done in American Idiot of merging multiple tracks, here, however, Green Day learns from the mistakes and doesn't make an overly long track, but a very cohesive and compact song, something that didn't happen with the previous album.
"See The Light" is the last song on the album, revisits the melodic line from the beginning of the title track, a worthy closure for a concept album.
In my opinion, this album is not a masterpiece like the previous one, but it also needs to be listened to a lot before judging it, and this is still a fresh review, I've only listened to the album a couple of times; it's true that 5 years have passed, and maybe something more could have been expected, but with the music that's being produced these days, perhaps the best we can have is this album, which is very good but certainly not without flaws.
In my opinion, there are too many tracks, the album lasts 71 minutes, and perhaps it would have been better to focus on quality over quantity, many songs are similar to 100 other songs by the group, Green Day must still be credited for experimenting with their style and often creating interesting results, hopefully awaiting a next album, hopefully in less than 5 years, totally outside the box.
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 Raiden7.0
Right from the start, an awful, phony and cold sound jumps out, which sets up a bad predisposition for listening.
It’s a mishmash we are talking about: a whopping EIGHTEEN tracks that make the album feel ENDLESS.
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."
