Green Day - AmericanIdiot

Wed 10th Nov, 2004 in Music Reviews

Imagine walking into an empty room that has nothing in it besides a dustified CD player sitting in the far corner. You are then guided to the CD player and told you will be spending the next week in here without contact from outside world. Other than the day to day resources of food that will be given to you, the only other material you can choose to have is a CD from the 21st century. To avoid potential insanity what would your choice be?

It took a couple of years in the making and every minute has been worth the wait. Punk-rockers Green Day have returned in fine force to the music scene with their latest album, American Idiot. Green Dday fans will be far from disappointed with American Idiot and those who have never been fans of the band in the past, well maybe it’s time to start.

Frontman Billie Joe is simply amazing. The versatility in his voice allows you to be able to listen to him non-stop. Each lyric on American Idiot carries with it a strongly emotive feel and not only because they are powerful words, but because of the way in which Billie Joe sings them. It’s hard to recall many punk songs that actually sound vocally solid, but his ability to have a rough edge while still sounding clean cut makes Green Day standout above all the underachievers.

The opening track, like the title of the album is American Idiot and it doesn’t fall short with its ability to mock America’s rather ludicrous morals and values, not only on a political level but on a more general basis. Just like there can be Australian idiots or any other country’s idiots, Green Day are simply acknowledging the means by which people can become passive-thinkers towards certain influences in life and how they themselves do not want to be among the somewhat normalcy in America. ‘Don’t wanna be an American idiot, one nation controlled by the media. Information age of hysteria…’ It’s a great song and perhaps the intended message that the band was hoping for has reached many of the already affected audience out there.

After the opening track, the rest of the album is quite an epic journey in itself. The songs consistently refer to each other with motifs, using terms such as the characters of St Jimmy and Jesus of Suburbia; also the names of tracks on the album. The second song is Jesus of Suburbia and is divided into five Roman numeral parts: I. Jesus of Suburbia; II. City of the Damned; III. I Don’t Care; IV. Dearly Beloved; and V. Tales of Another Broken Home. A very likeable play on words is found in II. City of the Damned which says, ‘they say home is where the heart is, but what a shame, cause everybody’s heart doesn’t beat the same… it’s beating out of time.’ All the five parts are linked together to form an epic punk opera which tells a sad consequential story of the highs and lows of living and doing what you believe in, despite how it affects others. Another referral to the works of politics, possibly reflecting the many political banters/theme on American Idiot with some attacks being more blatant than others.

St Jimmy introduces the listener further to the character of St Jimmy, who pops up in many of the songs. St Jimmy is a very unlikeable character when he is referred to as the, ‘suicide commando that your momma talked about,’ and ‘the son of a bitch and Edgar Allan Poe.’ Metaphorically, St Jimmy could be symbolic of many people but by taking the American political stance that Green Day have created with American Idiot I think we safely say we know who they are referring to.

The next song Holiday is a personal favourite of mine. Definitely not deficient of political banters, Holiday’s lyrics, ‘I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies, this is the dawning of the rest of our lives on holiday.’ The message in this song is to follow your own dreams and beliefs even if that means to not support the politically enforced and manufactured American dream which involves ‘hollow lies’ and is created by those in power who don’t want to get their hands dirty and are hence, ‘on holiday’.

Boulevard of Broken Dreams is a very intriguing and puzzling song. With lines such as, ‘My shadows the only one that walks beside me,’ and ‘I walk this empty street on the boulevard of broken dreams,’ it is seemingly easy to conclude that this song is about a lonely person walking down a street that is lifeless particularly when it refers to the ‘boulevard of broken dreams’ which is notorious for beholding the deceased stars of Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart, Elvis Presley and James Dean. A potentially deeper reading would see, once again, a referral to going against the suggested American dream. The person in the song feels they are walking alone because they are not doing what they think everyone wants them to (ie the media and those in political power) and they’re waiting for everyone to join them with what they believe in but ‘til then I walk alone’.

Another standout track both vocally and lyrically is, Wake Me Up When September Ends. Being track number 11 on the album and being dated September 10th this song is suggested to be about 9/11, but without making this too obvious Billie Joe has also introduced the passing of his father into the song associating the sadness of the events of 9/11 with his personal realisations of the sadness he feels for having lost his father at a young age. The message delivered in this song is to not forget the innocent ones that have been taken from us but the only way we can put them to rest is by not avenging their deaths by means of wars etc. Billie Joe sings this song so extremely emotively because it is so close to his heart and it is guaranteed to bring a tear to almost anyone who listens to it. ‘Like my father’s come to pass, the innocent can never last…’

Every single song on the album can be considered a masterpiece from all angles. Like Jesus of Suburbia the song Homecoming is another epic journey which is divided into parts where we are told of how the character of Jimmy dies, ‘Jimmy died today, he blew his brains out into the bay.’ The album definitely does not lack in the imagery department, packed full of moving songs including the infectious tune of Letterbomb that asks, ‘where have all the bastards gone?’, and the scapegoat remedy of, ‘Give me Novacaine’.

The cover art is also a bold statement of a hand holding a torn out heart that’s ready to explode juxtaposed with the title, American Idiot. Before opening, this cover is a strong political statement of what to expect from the lyrical content contained within. On the musical side of the album if you liked aspects of Dookie, Insomniac, Nimrod, Warning or any other previous releases by Green Day then you have a sense of what to expect from American Idiot. The album is purely Green Day at their best with a whole mixture of what fans have come to love of the band and is definitely up there with the greater albums so far in this century.