A darker album isn’t what I expected from Green Day.
Their new album, “21st Century Breakdown,” is broken into three acts: Heroes and Cons, Charlatans and Saints, and Horseshoes and Handgrenades, with a change in central focus in each act. Normally, I’m not a fan of introductory songs, but I liked this one. It sets the tone and theme for the CD.
One of the songs I enjoyed the most was “Know Your Enemy.” It’s upbeat and catchy, even though the lyrics are repetitive. I particularly liked the lyrics “silence is the enemy” because I believe silencing a voice is a terrible thing. This song is about standing up and getting your voice heard. If you don’t know what you’re fighting against, you don’t stand a chance to win.
The song “Last Night on Earth” reminds me of a 1950s ballad. I liked this song because it demonstrates the different tempos this band can master. It shows the strengths of the instrumentalists and Billie Joe Armstrong’s voice. I like this throwback style of song. I think the words are somewhat romantic because when Armstrong sang “You are the moonlight of my life every night,” it made me wish that someone felt that way about me. I didn’t expect to hear a song of this caliber from Green Day, so it was a pleasant surprise.
A song I had mixed feelings about is “¡Viva La Gloria!” The song starts out slow for the first minute, then it switches back to the usual pace for a Green Day song. When lead singer Armstrong sings the slow lyrics, it doesn’t sound like him. I think this is one of the first songs that I felt his voice wasn’t quite up to the standards I have for this band. It sounds like he is struggling to hit the higher notes. Whenever the name “Gloria” was sung, it reminded me of a church hymn, and the song came off rather somber compared to other songs on this album.
In the third act, there is another song “¿Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl).” It follows the similar pattern of starting out slow, then switching to a faster tempo. When the instruments start out, it reminds me of a mix between something I would hear at a circus or minstrel show. The way Armstrong starts out with singing “little girl, little girl why are you crying?” paired with the instrumentals, I got creeped out. That feeling typically turns me away from a song, which is what this song did. The lyrics are darker, adding to the reason why I didn’t enjoy it.
While I enjoyed the occasional dark song, there are more than enough on this album to last me a month or two.