Green Day is on the cover of the latest issue of Rolling Stone and as much as I love them and hate reading, I bought the magazine to see what they're up to, and because they're the greatest band on the face of the earth.
Now I don't know how these fancy things work, but the date on the corner of the magazine says May 28, 2009. Now either I'm insane and my iBook has joined me in Jingletown, I got it early, or I'm just normal and happened to stumble across it at a typical launch time. The real question is, did anyone just catch one? A real Green Day fan should have. If you didn't, keep reading, because you need it.
Do I review music for a living? No.
Will I act like I do for today? Hell. Yes.
The latest album is truly a work of art. How does it stack up against American Idiot, the album that set the bar in 2004 for all of Rock & Roll? Does it stack up at all? They're both rock operas to make the music world stop and take a look, and they both hint at a Hawthorne Heights album cover, but where does the road split?
First off, you year radio static, and a soft voice comes through the speakers in a John Lennon-like whisper. A tune mellow and twisted enough to put your kids to sleep goes on for a minute, and then a rock opera much like something from The Who blares, full and forward, an assault on the senses. While pleasantly still musical, it seemingly speaks through a distorted Gibson Les Paul and a wall of Marshall stacks twice as high as the singer commanding them. Backed by a bass as precision cut and clearly refined as glass, and a 3 dozen piece drum kit not played, but artistically commanded by a master.
The trifecta is a winner. It beats American Idiot on all fronts but a hit pop single, and that's something that every fan new and old has wanted for a while now - at least as far as I know. While I still love songs like Holiday, a pop group Green Day is not. There are obvious singles-to-be, but they are rooted deep behind The Clash, Bruce Springsteen, and maybe a hint of Boston-esque obsessive compulsive perfection.
From start to finish, radio static links most of the songs, in a way that any FM station links so many different bands' songs to one another, through fadeins and fadeouts without interruption, even if often the songs have nothing in common. That's what this album feels like. 18 works of art all totally different, yet flowing. I could name off songs like Know Your Enemy, Restless Heart Syndrome, East Jesus Nowhere, Christian's Inferno, and two different tunes called Gloria, but what does that do for you? It tells you the titles. Wow. You're edumacated now.
Go and find out for yourself, even if for no other reason than to broaden your musical horizons and prove me wrong, but don't miss out on it, because you'd be about as stoopid as this kid.
Yes, it has some American Idiot influence, and they are still relevant and modern, but they are going back to true-to-their-roots Green Day, with some obvious riffs coming from an album they themselves dropped 15 years ago, which has sold that many copies in millions I may add.
Let me know what you people think, good or bad, in email or a response right here. The best band on earth is back in full swing, thank God.
That's right America, I said it. God. Out loud. GOD. Are you offended? MERRY CHRISTMAS. Does the pain burn you? Are you going to sue me? CHRYSLER. BAILOUTS. Now what?! Stimulus Package! Take that. I laugh at blind censorship - it's so exhilarating.
