Review Roundup: Green Day – "21st Century Breakdown"

Green Day’s “21st Century Breakdown” is out today.  What are critics saying?  That its tremendous and huge and smart and angry and just pretty wow.  Most of the reviews, a bit unfairly I think, adopt the angle of, hey how crazy is it that that band that made that song about masturbating a dozen years ago became the best band in the world?  I mean, that’s how the lifespans of major music artists work.  Responding to the times, growing and learning, and such.

Hopefully the ejaculatory reviews were prompted by this being a timeless album rather than just relief at a good album when music at large straight sucks today.  Just because everyone makes that complaint doesn’t mean it’s not true.  Critical opinions, ATJ.

Rolling Stone: “They revitalize the whole idea of big-deal rock stars with something to say about the real world. They’re keeping promises they never even made, promises left behind by all the high-minded Nineties bands that fell apart along the way.”

San Jose Mercury News: “Greatest rock band in the world.”

LA Times: “The worst parts of “American Idiot” are gone. There’s nothing that tops the nine-minute mark here. Green Day has learned one needn’t have a mini, multi-part epic to pull off an epic album. There’s tempo and thematic shifts in the space of a song, sure, but nothing like the drastic turns of “American Idiot’s” “Jesus of Suburbia.” While instantly telegraphing the band’s ambitions, in hindsight it’s a tune that’s better to admire than actually enjoy.”

MTV.com: “And 21st Century Breakdown encompasses all that: the confusion, the skepticism, the horror and the hope. That it makes no judgments is its — and Armstrong’s — greatest accomplishment. Because, really, how can anyone judge the past 10 years?”