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Green Day's '21st Century Breakdown'

post #1 of 20
5/10/09 at 4:05pm
Thread Starter 
The whole album is currently streaming on Rhapsody, and being one of the most hyped albums of the year, I thought it might be interesting to discuss. Especially since Green Day is a band that I never thought would be remotely relevant to the pop music scene of the 2000s.

As a casual fan of Green Day with limited familiarity with their work, I think the album is decent. It's clearly retreading the rock-opera concept that worked, commercially at least, for American Idiot.

But on it's own merits, there are a few gems (21 Guns, Before the Lobotomy, and Last Night on Earth especially) that are tenaciously sticking in my head, and I'll give the band points for ambition, even if the album is spotty and doesn't quite work as a whole in service of its 'concept.'
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post #2 of 20
5/12/09 at 11:16am
I loved 90's Green Day (getting into them around '99/'00.) American Idiot changed that. When it hits, I know I'll want to give this a listen, even though the results seem destined to annoy and/or disappoint me massively.
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post #3 of 20
5/12/09 at 11:19am
Bobby is not a fan of the heart grenade.
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post #4 of 20
5/12/09 at 11:20am
I couldn't stand American Idiot. I'm still a big fan of Kerplunk! and Nimrod.
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post #5 of 20
5/12/09 at 11:20am
Damn, talk about back in the day.
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post #6 of 20
5/12/09 at 1:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by EdHocken View Post
Bobby is not a fan of the heart grenade.
So true. The artwork - and whole feel - for that album rubbed me up the wrong way. It's so cold and sterile. Even though it's better than the comparatively pedestrian Warning, American Idiot is easily my least favourite Green Day era. I'm not wild about the album either (I can remember about two listens from start to finish.)

Nimrod is one of my all-time favourite albums. And Dookie remains one of the best, most accessible pop-punk records ever.
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post #7 of 20
5/12/09 at 2:26pm
I can see that. The praise that comes from the album I think comes from a couple of things. The idea you could do a 14 minute "Rock-Opera" tracks and that Bush-Hate really started to come to the forfront in 2004. The fact that Green Day went political brought on a lot of press. That and it's "The new direction" of the band from the early 90s.

Granted, their change-up was probably a better move than staying in that pop-punk area that had already been taken by other bands.
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post #8 of 20
5/12/09 at 4:17pm
Yeah, their ambition was commendable. The results, however, left me thinking everyone might have benefited from them going out on a post-Nimrod high.
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post #9 of 20
5/12/09 at 4:20pm
I made it through this album once (barely). Really derivative, wears its influences on its sleeve worse than American Idiot (with even less of a narrative to boot). I mean, the thing is over 70 minutes, just ridiculously self-indulgent.

Their shocking, totally blatant plagiarism of the Hives' "Main Offender" guitar riff in "Horseshoes and Handgrenades" made me laugh pretty hard.
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post #10 of 20
5/15/09 at 9:24am
If anyone's interested, Amazon has the digital download of this for only $4.99 today.
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post #11 of 20
5/15/09 at 10:42am
I've only listened to the first couple of tracks so far, but can someone tell me which song "Last Night On Earth"'s melody is completely ripping off, note for note? I mean, I know it's a well-worn musical phrase but I can almost sing another song's lyrics to it and it's driving me crazy.
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post #12 of 20
5/15/09 at 11:12am
I never understood the appeal of their over simplified music and see through lyrics. I guess they were just the major chord "alternative" to the minor chords going on elsewhere in the early to mid 90s.
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post #13 of 20
5/15/09 at 11:33am
I only like bands no one has EVER heard of. I'm a pompous music fan.
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post #14 of 20
5/15/09 at 12:44pm
Not that I was planning to go to the show anyway, but I was mildly disappointed to see that Franz Ferdinand was opening for them: Foxboro Hot Tubs would at least have been an interesting gimmick.
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post #15 of 20
5/16/09 at 1:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony Sollecito View Post
I made it through this album once (barely). Really derivative, wears its influences on its sleeve worse than American Idiot (with even less of a narrative to boot). I mean, the thing is over 70 minutes, just ridiculously self-indulgent.

Their shocking, totally blatant plagiarism of the Hives' "Main Offender" guitar riff in "Horseshoes and Handgrenades" made me laugh pretty hard.
One listen here and nothing really grabbed me. One of the songs sounds exactly like "Holiday". I downloaded it from iTunes and it also comes with a needless cover of "A Quick One While He's Away".
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post #16 of 20
5/16/09 at 9:54pm
I still like Warning the best. Definitely their most interesting and varied album. Very underrated.
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post #17 of 20
5/16/09 at 11:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BankytheHack View Post
I only like bands no one has EVER heard of. I'm a pompous music fan.
My Hipster-sense is tingling.
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post #18 of 20
5/17/09 at 1:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by kingfan View Post
I still like Warning the best. Definitely their most interesting and varied album. Very underrated.
I'm an Insomniac man.

I still don't understand why none of their tracks have popped up on Guitar Hero or Rock Band. "Basket Case", "Geek Stink Breath", and "Brain Stew" would be great party tracks.
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post #19 of 20
5/17/09 at 6:50am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by kingfan View Post
I still like Warning the best. Definitely their most interesting and varied album. Very underrated.
I agree completely. I just recently took Warning for a spin for the first time in a few years, and I was surprised by how fresh and inspired it still sounds.
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post #20 of 20
5/18/09 at 8:27pm
Yeah, because thinking a shitty retread of a band's previous album is shitty is being a hipster.
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