Track Listing:

1. Song of the Century
2. 21st Century Breakdown
3. Know Your Enemy
4. ¡Viva la Gloria!
5. Before the Lobotomy
6. Christian’s Inferno
7. Last Night on Earth
8. East Jesus Nowhere
9. Peacemaker
10. Last of the American Girls
11. Murder City
12. ¿Viva la Gloria? (Little Girl)
13. Restless Heart Syndrome
14. Horseshoes and Handgrenades
15. The Static Age
16. 21 Guns
17. American Eulogy
18. See the Light

Green Day has never been the most thoughtful, nor the most impressive band on the planet.  One could call them one of the most callow, stereotypically aware bands of the modern-day music scene, with political references so destitute of any measure of intelligence that it is outright annoying.  Take American Idiot, for example.  The title track spurts out lame propaganda by ways of idiotising Americans – hence the name, “American Idiot” – and the American media – much like the legions of the Bush administration and the hilarities that came with it.  How about “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” or “Holiday”?  “Just ’cause, because we’re outlaws, yeah!” shouts Billie Joe Armstrong in self-proclaimed dignity at declaring himself a rebel of the American government, which is as blatantly and stunningly immature as drunken teenagers who think they’re hip and cool for dumping shit into their systems.

21st Century Breakdown sounds like American Idiot all over again – Green Day attempting to transcend the mundanities of their horizons through self-declared Messiahship.  The Armstrong-brand idiocy is still there: “Revolt against the honor to obey / … Gotta know the enemy, wah hey!”  Apparently Bush’s exodus from the White House wasn’t enough of an upheaval to satisfy Green Day, who spit out protests for revolution mechanically.  For a band of such height and airplay (which I don’t understand why they possess in the first place), you could have expected hubris that’s more suave, more dignified – something that Kanye West or U2 brandish out in public and still get cheered for.

Even the way in which they lyricise their revolutionary fantasies is insanely out-of-place, as though they’re trying to be politically moving when they don’t how to be.  The fact that they believe themselves to be “the righteous and the meek” while proclaiming “death” to “infidels”, “undertakers”, and millions of other supposedly dastardly subjects of malicious evil makes it out as if Green Day are declaring themselves a regrettably parodied version of anti-US fundamentalists.

And along with their pained lyrics is the realisation that Green Day have not changed: the staccato riffs, the static sounds, the deplorable obstinacy that most effectively characterises the most politically incorrect, dimwitted trio on the planet are all still there.  When one mixes some of the worst attributes a band could possibly have – cliches, hubris (of the wrong kind), and a severe modicum of the ability to process intelligent thoughts – they end up with Green Day of the American Idiot kind.  Unfortunately, 21st Century Breakdown failed to oversee any sort of transformation that I would have liked Green Day to have undergone.

FINAL RATING: D