I remember when I was like 10 and enjoyed “Dookie” (pauses for readers to calculate age). It was a great record, it was a good time to take you out of the occassional misery that is childhood. We would think nothing of the fact that most of the songs consisted of no more than 3-4 power chords. A lot of good things can be done with 3-4 power chords, after all. It’s just that it doesn’t really work all that well when it’s used for every single song on a 1-hour record, especially if it’s a band that’s been doing nothing but play 3-4 power chords since 1991. I guess I’ve aged and Green Day haven’t.

“American Idiot” is what I’d term “party punk-pop”, a hopelessly unintelligent product of fading punk revivalists who never seem to be able to grow up and out of their high school “prom band” style. Green Day frontman Billie Joe is ironically something of an “American idiot” himself, as it turns out, and his vocals do nothing but drag the record down into the mud with his hopelessly nasal, unchanging style of singing tired lyrics. Slow songs such as “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” are, needless to say, trite pieces of music that do nothing to measure up to former, sentimental glories.

Still, the record is undeniable catchy on occassions and something of a good time, even if it is dreadfully packaged in the plastic gloss of mainstream pop-appeal. Make of that as you will, but I for one am sure to never spin this disc again.

Year Released: 2004
Label: Reprise Records
Related Link: Green Day Official Site
Date Reviewed: 2004-09-27
Author: Andreas