Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best album of 2004, October 11, 2004
I never thought I'd say this about a Green Day album, but man is this a perfect album. From start to finish, there isn't a weak moment. Most bands have a hard time producing one great track on an album, let alone twenty-one.
As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the greatest rock album ever created (The Clash's London Calling), it's pretty incredible that Green Day would come up with this politically and socially barbed rock opera.
The great thing about American Idiot is that it can be enjoyed on the surface for being the rocking "anthem" album that it is. Or, dig into the lyrics and be amazed at the insight of the group that created "Dookie".
ebhp
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37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sing along to the age of paranoia, October 4, 2004
Who'd have thought it? The same three cartoonish clowns that titled an album "Dookie" and sang about "Pinhead Gunpowder" may have the best album of 2004 on the table with "American Idiot." Green Day suddenly abandons three minute two chord blasters and writes a play in 13 acts. Maybe they decided it was time to show upstart kiddy punkers like Blink, Sum or Avril exactly just how it's done.
All right, I'll admit the "cartoonish clowns" comment might be over the top. After all, I believe the lyric "Do you have the time to listen to me whine about nothing and everything all at once" is one of the most brilliant opening lines to a 90's song. That was almost 15 years ago, and some maturity had to creep in somewhere. Politics would come into play as well, and the title track suddenly ditches the old backdrops of mental wards and tweaking binges to shout at the "subliminal mind-fk America."
As soon as that rant ends, we are thrown into the twin tales of "St Jimmy" aka "The Jesus Of Suburbia" and his battle with his dual personalities. There are plenty of the usual three chord havoc bangers here, but more sophisticated arrangements appear in "Extraordinary Girl" and the ballad "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams." The suites of "Jesus Of Suburbia" and "Homecoming" are the best "Punk Opera" concept pieces since the mighty Husker Du roared forth with "Zen Arcade." Like that classic album, Green Day are out to prove that there is more to the world of punk than the preconceived notions and spiky haircuts.
For those still longing for "Kerplunk" etc, those albums are almost twenty years old. Get over yourselves, the band is grown both artistically and physically since then. They probably identify with the stuck in the past girlfriend who writes Jimmy (in "Letterbomb") "Where have all the (...)gone, where have all the riots gone" just before she walks out on him. For Green Day and Jimmy/Jesus, like the great lot of us, the mohawk cut disappeared when the bald spot became more prominent. But that doesn't mean the Green Day creative brain fell out along with hair. They haven't caved into recording an album of standards, and that is something to be thankful for. Add on that Green Day has managed to crank out an album as diverse and powerful as "American Idiot" without abandoning much of what made them originally great (and Billie Jo just seems to sing better with every album) is cause for celebration.
Four and a half stars.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quite possibly their best, September 27, 2004
Yes, that's right. I think this CD is actually better than Dookie. And not by a hair, or a smidge. I genuinely think this is Green Day's greatest. I mean, there are thirteen solid tracks, 21 songs, of some of the best if not THE best songs Green Day has ever written, and they've been arranged into a full on three act opera, making them that much better. Also, given the times, this CD may also have more social significance than Dookie did. Dookie brought Punk into the mainstream, but this CD may do so much more. Yes, this CD attacks our president (and rightfully so), but it is also an attack on the apathetic suburbia that let him rise to power, not to mention stand by as people like Jesus of Suburbia live harsh daily realities that they can only run away from but are doomed to return to. The story itself starts on President's Day and ends some twenty years later where, after finding his confidence in and ultimately destroying his alter ego St. Jimmy and surviving (probably not by choice) his relationship with the rebellious and insightful Whatsername, Jesus of Suburbia is left alone and looking back on what could have been. Musically, this is also Green Day's most, diverse and ambitious record ever. "Holiday" recalls the mid tempo roll of The Clash. My personal favorite "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" channels all that is good and melodic (which, I realize, isn't always much) about emo music. Songs like "St. Jimmy" and "She's a Rebel" recall the fast power chords that made Green Day famous. "Wake Me Up..." may be the most melodic, sombre, beautiful song they've ever penned, save "Good Riddance." The nine minute songs are also sheer brilliance as each new part just seems to build on the one before it, with "Homecoming" bursting in the end with the (by this point in the record) anthemic "Nobody Likes You/Everyone Left You/They're All out without you/Having fun!" Whatsername is the falling action of a third act, being the perfect closer to this album. There are just no weak points on this album. There is no filler. When the energy is high, it is really high. When this record is mellow, it is really mellow. This record is dynamic. It is meaningful. It is flawless. It is Green Day's masterwork.
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