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Rating: When a well-known record label stole their projects for the next album, the Green Day didn't give up; instead, they started the recordings all over again, with new pieces that would later form an award-winning concept album: American Idiot.
The album mixes various influences; from the band's punk roots (tracks like Saint Jimmy) to a new, more pop sound, perhaps more commercial but still enjoyable (tracks like Extraordinary Girl and Whatsername). To create something pleasing and hide the many commercial songs present in the album, but also to include more tracks, the trio tried a new composition method that consisted of writing a piece of song at least a minute long and then sticking them together with good riffs and well-worn chords that still mix well with the rhythm and the whole (Jesus of Suburbia and Homecoming), resulting in nine-minute fragmented songs that may or may not be appealing.
A few hints of punk-style lyrics in Holiday and lots of melancholy in songs like Boulevard of Broken Dreams or Wake Me Up When September Ends, but in the end, the sound is excellent and marks a turning point in punk, which was considered dead by many, reinserting it into many iPods of a global population now obsessed with much more commercial and more acknowledged artists today.
The album tells the story of a boy, Jimmy, who explicitly declares he does not want to be the usual pawn in someone else's hands, not the usual American idiot (see American Idiot) but rather defines himself as the Jesus of suburbia. After yet another argument with his mother, he decides to run away from home (Jesus of Suburbia) to the city (Holiday) where through various events he meets St. Jimmy (St. Jimmy), an alcoholic who introduces him to the pleasures of life and drugs (Give Me Novacaine). He later meets a girl, and falls in love (Extraordinary Girl), but is left through a letter (Letterbomb), in which the girl explains to him that St. Jimmy does not exist, but is only a figment of his imagination. Desolate, Jimmy finally returns home, where he discovers that his mother had always been waiting for him.
Ultimately, an excellent album, which perhaps needs more than one listen to be understood with a more complex key of interpretation, than simply "na na na na na on holiday!!!"
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 American Idiot (02:56)
Don't wanna be an American idiot
Don't want a nation under the new media
And can you hear the sound of hysteria
The subliminal mind fuck America
Welcome to a new kind of tension
All across the alien nation
Where everything isn't meant to be okay
Television dreams of tomorrow
We're not the ones who are meant to follow
For that's enough to argue
Well maybe I am the faggot America
I'm not a part of a redneck agenda
Now everybody do the propaganda
And sing along to the age of paranoia
Welcome to a new kind of tension
All across the alien nation
Everything isn't meant to be okay
Television dreams of tomorrow
We're not the ones who are meant to follow
For that's enough to argue
Don't want to be an American idiot
One nation controlled by the media
Information age of hysteria
It's going out to idiot America
Welcome to a new kind of tension
All across the alien nation
Everything isn't meant to be okay
Television dreams of tomorrow
We're not the ones who are meant to follow
For that's enough to argue
03 Favorite Son ()
He hit the ground running,
At the speed of light.
The star was brightly shining,
Like a neon light.
It's your favorite son.
It's your favorite son.
A fixture on the talkshows,
To the silver screen.
From here to Colorado,
He's a sex machine.
It's your favorite son.
It's your favorite son.
But isn't it a drag?
Isn't it a drag?
Isn't it a drag?
It's pretty bloody sad,
but isn't it a drag?
A clean-cut All-American,
Really ain't so clean.
His royal auditorium,
Is a murder scene.
It's your favorite son.
It's your favorite son.
Oh, isn't it a drag?
Isn't it a drag?
Isn't it a drag?
It's pretty bloody sad,
but isn't it a drag?
Well no one says it's fair.
Turn a teenage lush,
To a millionaire.
Now where's your fuckin' champion?
On a bed you laid.
He's not the All-American,
That you thought you paid.
It's your favorite son.
It's your favorite son.
But isn't it a drag?
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Other reviews
By Stràfiko Piezzecore
This results in 'American Idiot,' a public denunciation of George W.'s administration set like a rock opera.
'American Idiot' finally surpasses the (many) limits of its own genre, while obviously always remaining attentive to the immediacy it has always sought.
By rebel1
American Idiot particularly reveals the ideals of the band, it’s an anthem against America and the American people specifically defined as (idiots)!
Boulevard Of Broken Dreams... the most beautiful point of the song is right at the end… when those guitars attack with that haunting and very surprising melody.
By Spike Joe
"Jesus Of Suburbia is a truly remarkable and well-crafted song that, despite its length, flows smoothly and can be considered one of the best tracks on the entire album."
Green Day is like this now, and in a way, it’s perhaps a good thing since... we might get to hear some nice punk rock piece, even if commercial.
By CRAZY TRAIN
"Don’t want to be an American idiot, don’t want a nation under the new media…"
"Alienation has taken over the individual, who appears de-identified, deprived of the identity they were born with."
By The Punisher
This damn blockbuster rock’n’roll only suitable for stupid kids... this FUCKING adolescent rock, banal in everything.
I will never forgive Green Day for ruining one of the most exciting nights of my life.
