Green Day - Holiday

Wed 13th Apr, 2005 in Music Reviews

‘This is not an anti American song, this song is anti-WAR’, shouts Billie Joe Armstrong at the beginning of a live version of Holiday, the A-side to the third single from one of the best albums of 2004, American Idiot. As Armstrong suggests, the track itself is a call to arms against war, whether taken in the greater context of the album or as a metaphor for society today. Musically the track is a return to the punkier sounds we have come to expect from Green Day, rather than the dramatic ballad that was the previous single Boulevard of Broken Dreams.

It opens with a very Clash like riff, and indeed the interplay between Billie Joe’s guitar and the drums of Tre Cool brings to mind nothing if not the similar work of the English legends. This, however, is definitely not a bad thing. With this most recent album in particular, the band have proven themselves fit to be spoken about in the same sentence as such luminaries of the punk world. The high likelihood of Holiday following the first two singles into the charts means further success is assured for American Idiot in the commercial spectrum as well.

B-sides are limited to live versions of Holiday and Boulevard of Broken Dreams recorded in New York prior to the albums release late last year.  Perhaps for this reason, Boulevard of Broken Dreams in particular seems to lose something in the live recording presented here. Despite this, the tracks are sure to bring back fond memories for anyone who saw the band perform here in March. 

Nonetheless, if you’ve read this far, you probably already have the album.  And if you do, there’s really no need to own this single, unless you’re after a quick fix of live Green Day. It will no doubt help to keep American Idiot around the top of charts worldwide, and, hell, that’s the point of the third single, isn’t it?