Green Day

American Idiot

4 1/2 stars

Review Score:

(8/10)
It's tempting to pigeon hole Green Day's ambitious seventh album, as their version of a Who album, the next logical step after the Kinks-inspired underrated 2000 effort, Warning, but things aren't that easy. American Idiot is 100% a rock opera, a form that Pete Townshend pioneered with Tommy, but Green Day doesn't copy Tommy as much as they borrow from the Who's mini-opera "A Quick One, While He's Away," whose succession of 90-second songs isn't only strived to be equal with on two song here, but gives the band the template for the larger picture that is American Idiot. But the Who are not the only here.

The story of St. Jimmy has an angle similar to HÃ¼sker DÃ¼'S landmark Zen Arcade, while the music is filled with a pomp straight from the school of Queen and Rocky Horror Picture Show , all tied together with a political passion that can only be equaled by the Clash, .

Its east to reduce the Cd to its influences but that gives the wrong impression that this is no more than a copy of past and familiar sounds, when it's an distinctive, introspective work in its own . First of all, part of Green Day's appeal is how they have personalized the sounds of the past, making time-honored guitar rock traditions seem fresh, even vital. With their first albums, they styled themselves after first-generation punk they were too young to hear firsthand, and as their career progressed, the group not only synthesized these influences into something distinctive, but Armstrong turned into a muscular, versatile songwriter in his own right.

Warning illustrated their musical growth quite impressively, but on Idiot, the music isn't just tougher, it fuels the anger, disillusionment, heartbreak, frustration, paranoia and fear living in America in the days following 9/11, but also showcased here are small-scale intimate portraits and individual character sketches. There's a lot to absorb here, and some might dismiss it after just one listen as a bit too much for the likes of Green day, when in reality it is a rich, mature work of one great band.

Like all concept albums, this one works in several different ways. It can be taken as a collection of great songs .songs that are as visceral or as poignant as Green Day at their best, songs that resonate outside of the larger canvas of the story, as the fiery anti-Bush title anthem proves ,but when taken as a whole these songs have a much larger impact.

there really aren't many records like American Idiot In its musical muscle and sweeping, politically charged narrative, it's something of a masterpiece, and one of the few - if not the only - records of 2004 to convey what it feels like to live in the strange, bewildering America of the early 2000's.

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