Green Day the mother of all bands! The super power that has been rocking our generation for more than 15 years! A band who endlessly churn out quality albums after quality albums! Anthems after anthems! Rocking the foundations of every gig venue to its core! A band who simply have given their all every day of their lives. Green Day are the undisputed Kings of Rock! And boy do they deserve that title! The best band in the world? You better fucking believe it!!!!!
American Idiot is another slice of Green Day pie to which we can devour with pleasure. Thirteen songs which simply blow you out of your boots, and demand for more. You can not ignore this album, you live for every word, every note, every moment! This is one hell of an album! Green Day at their imperial best! Green Day have constantly produce numerous song which have embedded themselves into our memory. Whatever we are doing, where ever we are, we can always recall the words to Basket Case, or the tune to Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) Green Day have become an institution for Rock on these shores of ours! And we salute them!!!
The album explodes into life with opening track American Idiot. What a way to start an album! This gives you a huge taster of what is still to come! American Idiot hits you like an out of control juggernaut, rampaging through whatever is in its path. This track takes no prisoners!! Put simply this track is fucking awesome!!!!! (just like the rest of the album!!!!)
Green Day then put their thinking caps on and produce the first of two intriguingly good ideas. Jesus Of Suburbia is a collection of five short stories within a track. Its a novel idea and one that works really well! First up is the title track, the son of rage and love - the philosophy that Billie Joe has held firm. Short and sweet, the hold essence that GD have always up held! City Of The Damned kicks off with crunching punk kick to the knackers! Eat your you-know-what off! Its easily one of the most well established mini songs. This neatly leads into the next chapter I Don't Care this is Punk Green Day style at its fiery best! Listen and learn! Dearly Beloved gives you that slightly churchy feel to it. The sermon kicking off with the vicar giving out a a lecture concerning the usual waffle Vicars give out at a church mass. Tales Of A Broken Home the clue to this mini tale is in the title - To move away from your home as you've experience personal problems which have dominated your life for a long time. A pool of lies have effected you and continue to haunt your life. The respect and faith which you have built up ia suddenly shattered and destroyed. Lost forever! You feel hurt, angry, frustrated but ultimately resilient to face whatever the future throws at you.
Holiday sees Green Day at their most raucous best! A live wire track of almost four minutes, the rolling guitar riffs lights up the song, like a ship caught in the middle of a heavy storm, right slap bang in the centre of the Atlantic Ocean - miles from anywhere, being tossed about from side to side, water pouring in from both starboard and port, slowly making the ship gradually sink but the portable radio in the cabin is blasting out this track so you don't really give a fuck! And listen to that instead!
Boulevard Of Broken Dreams sees the evaluation of aspects of your life which are in some ways familiar yet unfamiliar. To walk down a certain part that you know so well, yet don't know were it actually leads. You are the only person who travels in this particular direction, you are the only one who knows of it's existence but have that uneasy feeling as you don't know the outcome. The only familiar aspect is your memory which acts as kind of guide, telling you all about the immediate sights that greet you.
Are We The Waiting difficult to describe this one - Lyrically perplexing! The jist of the track I think is about someone waiting for an event to happen. Something which they want to see or are hoping to see. As the opening lines suggest maybe it's alien waiting to be spotted in the sky? Starry nights, city lights coming down over me/Skyscrapers and stargazers in my head/ Answer on a postcard if you know!
St Jimmy is definitely PUNK Green Day style. I love the count in, just a few seconds after the intro - Billie Joe crying 1-2-3-4 then BOOOM!! Here we go! Apparent this Jimmy bloke is a suicide Commando! Some kind of mercenary who lives life on the edge. He's got a taste for suicidal cigarettes and Ramen and a little bag of dope! Dude!
Give Me Novacaine is the softer, gentler side of Green Day. Again this Jimmy bloke is mentioned and again he's brought his little bag of dope. Novacaine you say! The aches and pains of whatever is causing the problem are remedied by this Novacaine. It must have great healing properties as it can cure headaches, toothaches, relieve pressure on badly bruised limbs by draining excess fluid from the body (how you would do this is anyone's guest!) Chemists take note of this wonder drug!!!
She's A Rebel is another quick fire punk gem! Short, sweet and in your face faster than a slice of pizza covered in tomatoes, with ham and pineapple chunks on top! Excellent!
Extraordinary Girl is a charming tale of a er girl who is er extraordinary. Says it all really! The track kicks of with spicey Indian drumming which gives it a slightly exotic taste. Just as soon the tempo changes, fast and smooth, with a touch of the old el paso mixed in! Ole!!
Letterbomb grabs you from the off. Fast, hard and direct! Get ready for the rush, it's gonna be a good one! This track is definitely another get all your friends around for a movie night, order an almighty pizza and get in the beer!
Wake Me Up When September Ends is a real fucking gem! It has the same style as Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) Slow, then sharp, quick and devastating awesome! This track was written with the terrible events of September 11th 2001, when the Twin Towers in New York where destroyed by terrorists, in mind. A proud and defiant New York rose from the ashes that day and Green Day have captured the spirit in this song.
Homecoming is the second of two collections of stories within a track. Another nine minute epic. Death Of St Jimmy gets things started. St Jimmy killed himself by blowing his brains out (checked out the lyrics, if you thinking I'm lying!) East 12th St is next up. A office place for the almighty himself to complete his administration work. Nobody Likes You says it all this track. Performed in a kind of military way. Rolling snare fills give you that march army feel to it. Rock N Roll Girlfriend is the one where you have know the coolest rock girl ever. She likes all the rock bands of today especially Green Day (which is pretty handy really, otherwise she'd be treading on very thin ground!!) (He's just kidding! - Ed) We're Coming Home Again is the ending of a daunting and quite literally strenuous track. Homewood bounds James and don't spare the horses!! - Ed (Oi this is my review b*gg*r off!!!)
Whatsername neatly rounds off a fucking good album, a rocking, pounding, moshingly ace piece of work from the truly great ones! One night you get blindingly drunk and one abiding memory of that night you remember on the morning after was that you were talking to this girl. She seemed pretty cool, you exchanged numbers. You rang her up and said hi - after a while you realize that the one piece of information you can't recall is her name. She's so cool yet you can't remember her name! Oh f*ck it! What was it? Whatersname!!!!
What can you say about Green Day that hasn't been said before! They are fucking ace, this album is fucking ace. So allow me to impart a priceless piece of information to you - GO OUT AND BUY THIS ALBUM, PLAY IT NON STOP ON YOUR STEREO SYSTEM, TURN UP THE VOLUME TO ITS MAXIMUM AND ROCK OUT, BECAUSE THIS ALBUM IS SO MONUMENTALLY COLOSSAL YOU JUST HAVE TO OWN IT AND LISTEN TO IT OVER AND OVER AGAIN! GREEN DAY ARE F*CKING AWESOME!!!!!