Reviews

We've all been nodding our heads to the title track of this one for months, waiting patiently to see what the acclaimed Billie Joe, Mike and Tre had in store for us this time around. (No pun intended) I can remember being a kid, jumping up and down on my bed to "Basket Case." Not to mention, seeing them was my first concert experience. For me, Green Day has become one of those bands that no matter what they come out with, no matter how disappointing they could have been over the years, no matter who they become, they'll always be loved because you just can't help but forever hold a place in your heart for the first band to really get under your skin. I was a kid, I didn't know anything about music, I wasn't raised on anything but the Grateful Dead and Lynyrd Skynyrd, and until someone played a Green Day song for me, I didn't know anything else existed. Pretty sad, huh?                          
  Anyway, enough about my life story, and onto the task at hand. "American Idiot" is to be completely honest, everything I was expecting from this band.  It's different, but not so drastically different that we can all run around like chickens with our heads chopped off screaming "Sellout!!" Part two of track two "Jesus of Suburbia" had one lyric that particularly struck me. "The motto was just a lie/It said home is where your heart is/But what a shame/'Cause everyone's heart doesn't beat the same/We're beating out of time." I'm not sure what made me like that so much, it just felt like Billie Joe was being vulnerable for a second, which was interesting. The follow-up to that piece was "I don't Care" which made the point that everyone is full of shit. Sound like Green Day? I think so! The way that this song, and also track twelve were separated into movements was great.  It gives it a vintage feel, the way that it's composed as though it were a priceless piece of classical music.                                               Song five, "Are We The Waiting" could be a possible follow-up to the timeless ballad, "Good Riddance," which when I heard the other day on a classic rock station, made me feel old.  It's softer, but that serenity is quickly blasted out of the water by "St. Jimmy," which brings back styles seen on Kerplunk. If each of these songs wasn't completely original, I'd say that it could have been a greatest hits album.  It's certainly a collaboration of the years gone by, the different ways Green Day have gotten together and changed America.  It's entertaining, full of nostalgia and sentiment. "American Idiot" is a monumental album for a band who has come so far in never being able to define themselves. It's a gripping work of musicianship, a precise and well mixed group of songs that are as different from each other in instrumental backing as they are in lyrics and theme. Five stars for a band that deserves much more. For those of you who say that Green Day is "not punk" or are "sellouts," get the hell off those high horses and recognize years upon years of hard work and give them the respect that these veterans deserve.