American Idiot

Ok. This one caught me off guard. I wasn’t looking forward to the listen, but came away with a new appreciation. The political observations are wonderful.

It couldn't be anything else

I think It's maybe like 8 years too late, as far as my life goes, for me to really fall in love with this album. Just as far as my musical taste goes, we're not exactly starting in a great place here. This is a combination of pop punk and musical theater, which takes itself *very* seriously. Additionally, the message here is really intended to resonate with people who, are like a decade younger than I am now. And the path America has taken since this came out honestly makes some of the messaging feel dated, or even detached. I understand this is about generational aimlessness and how cruelty lives quietly (or sometimes very loudly) in traditional American cultural values. Which I think is an admirable enough thing to dial in on. But it also feels like Green Day really thinks they can save American society with pop punk, and today that just feels really naive and self important. Additionally, a friend of mine holds that making a Broadway musical out of your album instantly obliterates your punk credentials regardless of who you are, and I can't agree more. But regardless of my complaints with the concept and execution of this album, it does get out a couple of pretty great songs. My favorite song here is Holiday, which is just driven by a fantastic bassline in the punk tradition. I also like St. Jimmy, and Letterbomb, which just work as great pop punk songs. I think Wake Me Up When September Ends is good too, mostly for it's earnestness. I'd also like to shout out *parts* of Jesus of Suburbia, and at least acknowledge that American Idiot is a particularly catchy song, even if I don't particularly like it. But, as this album is sequenced, Holiday, St. Jimmy, and Letterbomb are all tacked inseparably onto other songs that I don't really like (including Boulevard of Broken Dreams). Holiday plays first, so it's not as big of a deal there, but if you just want to listen to Letterbomb or St. Jimmy, I have to either sit through a song I don't really like, or like skip around. And I understand that this has been changed on some re-releases of the album, but it was obviously an intentional decision when this came out. I'm reviewing American Idiot, not American Idiot (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition). Although, just on principle, I think Homecoming is the weakest track here. Jesus Of Suburbia is an epic that works on this album, it's multi-phased and it isn't too ingrained into the plot of the album that it does just work as a song. But when I listen to Homecoming, it actually feels like I'm missing something without watching the musical, or reading the liner notes or something. It's too tied to the narrative that it doesn't feel like I'm getting a complete experience without checking out another, related piece of media. I think, within this context, that constitutes a failure of songwriting. I don't really hate this album, a lot of the *bad* songs are more inoffensive, and there are highlights. But I found that the concept and execution here took more away from the album than it added to it. I understand why this is important to people, but it will never be for me.

Man. Spoken through and to a generation that connected Gen X through Grunge and Hip-hop and into the new century. Few albums are more of a watermark and even fewer are still adored and respected thirty years later.

Let's get this out the way first. This might call itself punk, but do yourself a favour and listen to

Wire: Pink Flag

The Clash: Live at Shea Stadium

Gang of Four: Entertainment

and see what punk can really be.

This is polished, slick and commercial. The political message is a bit obvious and tries to be angry, but doesn't bear comparison with Jello Biafra singing "Kill the Poor"

And then it decides to be "Rock Opera" and, boys, this is no Quadrophenia.

It's solid, well played, enjoyable rock posing as something that other people did better. Perfectly fine on its own terms, but with aspirations beyond its grasp.

Green Day, and this album in particular, were huge when I was in middle school, which was a time in my life where I would only listen to classic rock and "punk". You know, the kind of punk that got played on classic rock radio stations from time-to-time? Comically, I think Green Day are literally the kind of punk that gets played on classic rock radio stations now.

Anyways, at the time, Green Day's brand of pop punk felt like the most corporate sellout and least punk music I'd ever heard. Now, I realize teenage me was a closed-minded idiot, but admittedly, I'm still struggling a bit to get past those feelings while listening to American Idiot now.

I can hear the punk influences and the societal commentary is right in your face, but it feels so hollow, fake, and safe. Paint-by-numbers punk music with no real edge. Honestly, this kind of feels like my generation's U2. An uber popular band with decent songs, but it just doesn't really do it for me. Am I still just being a closed-minded idiot? I don't know, probably. Maybe I'll come around when Dookie is generated?

Dookie is better but this is still fantastic

Don't wanna be an American

right now even more then back then.

This album is so nostalgic to me; countless hours spent listening to this after school while playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2. Knew it end to end.
Two years ago I got to see their 20th anniversary tour of this album, and being at the barricade, was one of the best concert experiences of my life.
This many years later, the Bush era criticisms are maybe dated but still valid. What a banger of a concept album.
The singles from this got tired from all the air time for me, but the whole album is so good.
Highlights: letterbomb, homecoming, jesus of suburbia (those transitions go so hard), st jimmy (the energy!)

jel samo meni (i mom bratu također) ovaj frontmen, bili bob džons il kak se već zove, izgleda ko rej vilijam džonson? možda čak i ne liče toliko al imaju ful sličnu vibru

prva pjesma - prvi mp3-plejer u osnovnoj, hahahha, strašno. sjećam se kako gledam fleš-animacije sa stikmenima, kolju se automatskim puškama, a ovo svira u pozadini

uglavnom ne valja ovo baš. ima još dvije mim pjesme: bulevar bla bla i ona wake me up when september ends. ostatak isto nije baš nešt. ehhh. i još traje sat vremena, brate

I have always been a hater of Green Day. My favorite genre is very similar to this type of music, but that means it has to be done right for me to like it. Blink-182, My Chemical Romance, Rancid. These are bands that take on a similar genre and do it right for the most part. To me, American Idiot is very boring, annoying and pointless. I used to love Boulevard of Broken Dreams and a few other songs from other albums, but they have fallen out of grace with me. The more music I like, the more I get to listen to. I don't want to dislike any album, but sometimes we get American Idiot and I have no choice. Also, I hate how they mash songs together for seemingly no reason. I guess there's a concept here that I definitely didn't follow. Maybe that has something to do with it.

I knew the main singles, but hadn't listened to it all the way through. Consistently great songs, grand in scope but keeping to a theme throughout, Green Day have done themselves proud. Hard to believe this is the same guys who sang about masturbation losing its thrill..........

I find it less meaningful that their previous record 'Dookie', which is also on the list.

7/10 [DROP]

Parte bene. Ma generalmente troppo artificiale e costruito

This came out when I was 11 and just getting into 'rock music', so... it's a 5.

I was 13 years old when this album came out. My obsession with music had begun only five years prior, but it had already become one of the defining aspects of my life. Although I was already hip to many bands from the 90's and onward, my familiarity with Green Day was limited to their radio hits; I enjoyed them all well enough, but never felt compelled to look further into them. Nevertheless, my parents bought me this CD for Christmas a few months after it came out for some reason. I remember being confused, but I made sure to listen to it a few times because I didn't want to insult them. I think I thought it was fine on the first listen - maybe elements of it seemed more polished than I was used to, but it didn't scare me off or anything. I liked it a bit more on the second listen; by my third or fourth listen, I was genuinely surprised by how much I really, *really* liked it.

Over 20 years later, I'm still a bit surprised by how much I like American Idiot. There are very, very few mainstream pop-punk albums from this era that I enjoy even half as much. But as my unlikely Green Day fandom and appreciation has expanded throughout the last two decades, it's still hard for me to not view this album as a major accomplishment. I think Billie Joe Armstrong can craft a melody with the best of them, and some of his finest compositions appear on American Idiot. There are certainly some more ~melodramatic~ moments, but for me, they are saved by the strength of his voice and, perhaps even more importantly, his singing style, which never devolves into the horrific oversinging as some of his other contemporaries and influences. In general, the band follows suit, succeeding in their grander ambitions while remaining a tight-knit unit. Even the more bombastic moments of “Jesus of Suburbia” and “Homecoming” - two absolutely tremendous achievements, mind you - never stray so far from their strengths that they feel unwarranted or misguided.

I understand that some people got burnt out on the hits and this album's general overexposure; it's one of many criticisms that I understand (for the record, I still think they're all pretty fantastic, especially the title track, "Holiday", and "Wake Me Up When September Ends”). I also understand not being a fan of theirs in general; I understand digging their early stuff but not caring for the direction this album takes; I understand reservations about it being a “victim” of the loudness war. Not only can I respect any of these viewpoints, I acknowledge that, given where my tastes generally lie, it probably seems strange for me to love this album as much as I do. But I’m certainly not going to apologize for it, and I will forever cherish the incredible memories I have attached to it.

5/5

Such a great album with serious issues addressed, whilst maintaining Green Day’s humour.
Not a wek track to be found

Oooh, this is going to be hard/impossible to rate objectively...

I was obsessed with Green Day from the age of 14 due to being the exact correct age when Dookie came out for it to blow my mind, and that obsession carried on for about 10 years (and recently got resurrected for the release of Saviours). Which is to say, there is so much emotion and nostalgia tied up with this period that there is no objective lens to view 10 years of Green Day albums through, this included.

This is not my favourite Green Day album (that title goes to Warning, an album considered a commercial failure, but that for me, was their most beautifully weird record) but the margins between my favourite Green Day albums and the Green Day albums almost universally accepted as "The Best ™️" during this period, are tiny.

American Idiot (the album) is bloody ambitious for a pop punk band. American Idiot (the song) carries on being hugely relevant and makes you pine for the days when George W Bush was the idiot in question - I admire Billie for continuing to be outspoken about his politics regardless of pushback (and the many weird posts from Mike Dirnt's wife).

Like most successful singles from most massively popular albums, I have heard the singles from this album too often, and in too many random shops, to judge them fairly, so I'm going to highlight my favourite non-singles.

She's a Rebel is just stupidly catchy and I loved it from the moment I first heard it. Whatsername is another favourite, as is Letterbomb (mostly because it feels like they partially ripped off 86, a song I really like from Insomniac). It just feels like a very cohesive album, to the extent that while I usually get frustrated with nearly 1 hour long records, this properly whips by. It's considered a classic for a good reason.

This mark was inevitable:

5/5

"American Idiot" displays Green Day at their very best and the it was the album that proved that they are far more than the one-trick-pony known from "Dookey". Already during the 90s, some punk rock bands (including Green Day themselves) had gone far beyond the traditional 3- or 4-chord 3-minutes songs with primitive lyrics. "American Idiot" takes this to the max and with it's well-placed tonality changes between parts and ironic and even subtile lyrics, this is actually modern stadium rock with a punky production. And even 20 years later, "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends" are still the reference tracks of how far punk rock can go. Liked it when it came out and watched it become a legend.

It's fine. You can tell they really want this album to suceed and for the most part it does. It just gets a little repetitive and it tries to be more serious than it is. They can say faggot because they are identifying as one. The rest of the slurs really date this.