Green Day: 21 gun salute
May 2nd, 2010 by admin
One of my favorite bands. And I’m sure I’m not the only Green Day fan wondering (not in a bad way) about what happened to the pure punk rockers of the 90s. Early Green Day music was pure punk – three chords and songs rarely over 2 minutes. Starting with American Idiot and now with the new album, 21 Century Breakdown, Green Day has shifted to a ‘Rock Opera’ format, with 5-8mn long songs. Many of the songs are extremely melodic. Most of the songs are extremely good – just not what you’d expect to hear from Green Day. I mean, listen to Static Age (below). You going to tell me it doesn’t sound like Sum 41 or American Hi-Fi?
Slightly more annoying: with American Idiot,at least, you could tell that the band was blasting George ‘Bubba’ Bush – now there is a true American Idiot. But now, some years on, hearing Green Day drone on about ‘hating modern life’ and all….it sounds very contrived. Come on guys, you’re multi-millionaires many times over, you’ve been doing this for over 10 years and you’ve sold a gadzillion albums. Are we really supposed to believe that you’re really that bored of life? That you’re really that unhappy about where you are in life? I’d believe it if this was coming from a 20-something band still struggling to make it big. Not going to believe it coming from one of the most popular rock bands of the last 10 years.
So tune out the lyrics – but definitely crank up the volume to 11 and enjoy the tunes.
21 Guns
Static Age
Viva La Gloria