Rating: NNN
Like Green Day’s hit album American Idiot, 21st Century Breakdown takes a concept-album approach to themes of disillusionment and youthful frustration and asks what the fuck is happening to the world. Here, they’re angrier, franker and more disgusted with America than ever before.
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The tunes are also more ambitious, with strings, piano ballads, Foo Fighters-like yells and a ton of infectious melodies. The story is hard to follow, but after a few listens the band’s rallying cries take shape. No, they’re not Clash or Springsteen (despite a few musical nods to both), and some of the messages sound clichéd, but this is a good reminder that just because change has come to the White House, America’s problems haven’t gone away – and neither will Green Day.
Top track: Know Your Enemy
Green Day play Hamilton’s Copps Coliseum on July 16.
