Album Review: 21ST CENTURY BREAKDOWN

Written By Ruth Kagan

The lyrics of 21st Century Breakdown, the latest release from Green Day, continue in the band’s punk rock past by challenging societal norms. Five years ago, American Idiot rose through the charts with four songs reaching the Billboard 100 (“American Idiot,” “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” “Holiday,” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”), as lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong lamented his country and company.

The band’s previous words of discontent coupled with angry bass and percussion sent a clear message: the trio could not bear the current state of affairs. Despite the new album’s title referencing a “breakdown,” several of the tracks are far calmer than those of American Idiot. For example the instrumentation of the track “Peacemaker” borrows a cool Spanish mood, but Armstrong’s angry roots show when Armstrong admits that “I drink from a well of rage/I feed off the weakness with all my love.”

In another slower and novel adaptation, the song “21 Guns” echoes the strong chords of Weezer’s “Beverly Hills.” Like many of the tracks on 21st Century Breakdown, the musical air of “21 Guns” is reminiscent of something radically different from Green Day’s past while the content still speaks about loneliness and apathy.

For a band that became famous for their punk anger at a rigid society, originality and freshness can be difficult to maintain after twenty years. In 21st Century Breakdown, Green Day successfully reinvents itself yet again. While Armstrong’s iconic voice is the true unifying element across decades of Green Day’s music, the band stays both relevant and true to its punk roots by maintaining their lyricism and varying their styles.