About The Record

21st Century Breakdown is the eighth studio album by American punk rock band Green Day, released through Reprise Records on May 15, 2009. It is the band’s second rock opera, following American Idiot, and its first album to be produced by Butch Vig. Vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong described 21st Century Breakdown as a “snapshot of the era in which we live as we question and try to make sense of the selfish manipulation going on around us, whether it be the government, religion, media or frankly any form of authority.

Time Span

The span of nearly five years between American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown was the longest gap between studio albums in Green Day’s career. The band had been working on new material since January 2006. By October 2007, Armstrong had 45 songs written, but the band showed no further signs of progress until October 2008, when a video of the group recording with producer Butch Vig in the studio was posted on YouTube. The writing and recording process, spanning three years and four recording studios, was finally finished in April 2009.

Reception

The album received generally positive reception. 21st Century Breakdown achieved Green Day’s best chart performance to date. Upon its release, 21st Century Breakdown reached number one on the album charts of at least 24 countries “. The album subsequently achieved number one on the Billboard 200, European Top 100 Albums and UK Albums Charts.

Writting of the Album

Green Day’s seventh album, American Idiot, was released in 2004 and immediately garnered the band much success. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling five million copies in the US, and was nominated for several awards, winning the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album. With that set Green Day had to pull up something new for their next piece of work. Green Day set out to a 13 month long tour of American Idiot which ended in October 2005. In January 2006, the band began to write new songs for what would become their eighth album and the followup to American Idiot. Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said in a January 2006 interview with Billboard, “We’ll start with silence, and that’s how we’ll be able to find the inspiration to find another record.”

Release of the Album

On February 9, 2009, Green Day announced that the upcoming album would be titled 21st Century Breakdown and that it would be split into three acts; “Heroes and Cons”, “Charlatans and Saints”, and “Horseshoes and Handgrenades”.

On March 17 a teaser trailer for 21st Century Breakdown was posted to the band’s website. A week later, it was announced that 21st Century Breakdown would have an international release date of May 15. In early April, Green Day premiered “Know Your Enemy” on television.

21st Century Breakdown was released internationally on May 15, 2009 through Reprise Records. A vinyl version was released, limited to 3,000 copies and consisting of three ten-inch records (one for each of the album’s “acts”), a CD copy of the album, a sixty-page art booklet, and a digital download of the full album at midnight on the day of release. 21st Century Breakdown was only released in a Parental Advisory version containing explicit lyrics and content. Wal-Mart refuses to sell albums with a Parental Advisory sticker, and it requested that Green Day release a censored edition. Green Day chose not to release a censored edition and responded to Wal-Mart’s request by stating, “There’s nothing dirty about our record… They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there. We just said no. We’ve never done it before. You feel like you’re in 1953 or something.”

Track Listing

All lyrics written by Billie Joe Armstrong, all music composed by Green

Track Review

The album starts with a short into titled Song Of The Century. It’s a one-minute track where Billy Joe Armstrong’s voice seems to come out of a radio as the noise of static surrounds his singing.

The first act, Heroes And Cons, begins after Song Of The Century and contains six tracks. First, the title-track, 21st Century Breakdown, bridges the gap between American Idiot and this album. Its piano intro followed by the drums’ entrance is reminiscent of the intro to “The Saints Are Coming” but the rest of the track has the exact same sound as American Idiot. As a matter of fact, this track in particular sounds a lot like “Jesus Of Surburbia” mainly because Billy Joe sings in the same melodic tone.

The second track of the first act is also the first single of the album. Titled Know Your Enemy, the song has the kind of energy that makes you want to jump up and break something. It’s definitely the kind of song that will play in arenas all summer long.
In “¡Viva la Gloria!”, the first verse only features a piano along with a violin to accompany the singing but the song turns high-tempo as soon as it hits the chorus. It’s basically a track calling to revolution.

Before The Lobotomy is probably the first song that shows how Green Day’s sound has subtly evolved. It starts out slow with great singing by Billy Joe then the full band pops in and out after every line from the first verse to finally erupt completely in the eighth verse. The song feels more like a classic rock track at the start then the usual pop-punk fare. Somehow Green Day successfully mixed both genre to create some sort of uber-pop-punk.

Christian’s Inferno, a high-tempo song, brings Green Day back to the pop-punk sphere. There is nothing really memorable about this track save for the drums which sound a lot like The Go-Go’s “We Got The Beat.”

Heroes And Cons concludes with Last Night On Earth, a piano-driven ballad that is probably the best song out of this act. Until this point, most of the songs were quite similar to those on American Idiot. Despite the great start of Before The Lobotomy, the song did end up sounding just like the others towards the end. Last Night On Earth is different as it stays on the same pace all the way to the end. I don’t want to sound blasphemous but this was a very Beatles-esque kind of track. A beautiful song.

The second act, called Charlatans And Saints, also has six tracks and begins with East Jesus Nowhere, a medium-tempo song. It begins with someone messing around with a radio dial as we get to hear snippets of various radio stations and then the guitar kicks in with the main riff. Although the song isn’t really extraordinary, something about it truly shows how they managed to improve their sound from American Idiot. I don’t really know how to explain it. It might be the lyrics, it might be the neat bassline in the second verse, or just the way the song was produced overall; all I know is that it sounds sort of the same, but better. I know, it doesn’t make any sense, but that’s how I feel.

With its fast-paced acoustic guitar, Peacemaker sounds like a cross between a Mexican song and folk rock. It’s one of the best track of the album.

The third track of the second act is Last Of The American Girls, a song where “the last of the American girls” is described. Like East Jesus Nowhere, there’s nothing that really sets this track apart from the rest, yet it is still a pretty good song. There’s also a sense of connection here as the ending goes right into the start of Murder City which is the next track. There’s not much to say about Murder City. It’s a high-tempo song, similar to the stuff in American Idiot.

¿Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl) follows Murder City. The first verse along with the instrumental in the beginning sounds a lot like My Chemical Romance’s “Mama” from The Black Parade album, another rock opera record. The instrumental is excellent as it goes well with Billy Joe’s singing and the guitar solo is pretty good. It’s one of the best tracks of the album.

Restless Heart Syndrome brings Green Day out of the punk sphere and more into a rock/alternative frame thanks to the presence of a piano and an orchestra. Billy Joe delivers again on the songwriting and singing parts of the song. The ending is also great as the instrumental reaches a climax. After my first listen, I rated this one as a great track while I rated the previous one as a good track. Now, I prefer ¿Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl) but I’ll probably change my mind after listening to them again. It goes to show how good this album is. It only gets better and better.

The final act, Horseshoes And Handgrenades, has only five songs but is probably the best part of the album. The high-tempo Horseshoes And Handgrenades starts off the third act with a bang. The instrumental sounds familiar but I can’t quite place it. It sounds like the kind of song you would hear on a commercial but the first line - “I’m not f***ing around” - quickly takes that idea out of your head. This song is quite edgy and Billy Joe adds to it with the rage in his voice and some screaming towards the end.

The Static Age is another solid high-tempo track. Nothing really stands out apart from the great songwriting.

The second single of the album, 21 Guns, is probably my favorite track out of the eighteen songs. Like Last Night On Earth, this is more of a classic rock song than punk. Billy Joe’s singing is great especially in the chorus where the title gets mentioned. The singing isn’t the only thing working in this track. The instrumental is also great. The overall feel of this song is just perfect with a tight production that makes every note count. A superb song.

American Eulogy shares the same format as two songs in American Idiot - “Jesus Of Suburbia” and “Homecoming.” Indeed, like those two songs, American Eulogy is actually split into two parts: “Mass Hysteria” and “Modern World.” The track begins like Song Of The Century, the album’s intro, only the lyrics are different. “Mass Hysteria”’s lyrics allude to several moments of crisis in the United States, namely Hurricane Katrina and the wildfires of California while “Modern World”’s lyrics clearly state “I don’t wanna live in the modern world.”

The final track of the album is also one of its best. See The Light has a catchy melody and a good overall production.

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