American Idiot

Classic and solid start to finish.

It’s like a 10, probably.

I’ve never heard this album in full until today. I’m an idiot. Perhaps the titular American idiot. I never knew there was a big running story and plotline and thread here; I’ve only ever heard the big tracks – American Idiot, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, and Wake Me Up When September Ends. I always knew there was a Broadway musical, but I never made the connection somehow.

This was fucking awesome. There’s not a single missed beat here – from those opening guitar riffs on American Idiot, through the entire running plot of “home sucks, I’m leaving, let’s party, I’m in love, oh shit, never mind, this sucks, I’m going back home” that’s portrayed brilliantly throughout the lyrics and instrumentation of every single track until the sort of epilogue that is “Whatsername,” and the peace that Jesus has finally come to after all his St. Jimmy escapades.

It’s a very malleable plot, but what really drives it are these damn songs; every single one of them is fantastic, from the compositions, the guitar riffs, the extremely high energy, and especially in the lyrics. I now understand why all of these are paired so specifically on streaming. You cannot hear one of them without the other, and you really can’t listen to some of these songs by themselves, unless you remember the sort of context of the album. It really is a damn play.

One small thing about the plot itself… I dunno, it’s a little weird in the end, given how often people find success outside of their hometown in my experience, but in terms of this hellish post-9/11 suburbia that Jesus finds himself in, maybe he really is just more comfortable at home. Regardless of that, I thought this was fucking spectacular. Absolutely worthy of the hype. Really dumb of me to never listen before now, but I now feel as cleansed as Jesus did at the end of this album. One of the easiest 5s yet.

Had Rock Opera, so why not a Punk Rock Opera. Simultaneously too short and yet some songs feel too long. 20 years later and I'm still surprised Green Day had this in them

Great production, great songs.

There are so many things I'd like to say about this album. In fact, that its taken me 5 months and 100 other albums to finally sit down and begin typing out my thoughts. As I sat down and began waxing poetic on each song—its instrumentation, lyrics, and place in the album’s overarching narrative—I realized that what I really wanted to convey was how much I absolutely love this album. So while this may not be the ten-thousand-word thesis I initially set out to write, the core message remains the same: this is one of my favorite albums.

Corny, overproduced shite for angry teens. This list so white.

First half starts strong then peters out. Double tracks take interesting turns.

Greenday was greated with cheers when they published Dookie,,, 10 years later.... I skipped through most of the songs on this album, as song A sounds like song B sounds like song C...
How has this band managed to captivate so many people for so long?

This is the first album that I am giving 1 star...

Den her rammer lige i ned i gymnasie-mig. Der er virkelig mange gode sange og jeg kan stort set synge med på det hele.
Når det er sagt, så synes jeg at der er direkte irriterende numre på pladen. Er klar over at det er meningen at det skal være en punk rock opera, men jeg kunne godt være foruden et par sange..
Stur stur 4-tal!

I really wanted to find something here to keep this from being a 5, but I just couldn’t.

This was in heavy rotation at my house for a long time when it came out. Probably #2 in Green Day's catalog (Dookie) for me, but still tremendous. This band is the apex of pop-punk. If you're into that genre, there's virtually no better album than this.

OK you snooty bastards, it's "pop-punk", it was insanely popular, but that's for a reason. And sure, it's not "Dookie" either, but this was a definite return to form and absolutely "fit" the era. It's not big or clever, but it's a hella lotta fun.

Compared to Dookie this is dookie. Taken on its own though it's alright.

Not as consistently good as Dookie, but still classic

Some nostalgic songs, but the ones I didn't already know sounded just like generic 90's pop punk. Nothing special.

I liked Green Day back in the day, but never checked this album out beyond a few of the hits. I enjoyed this and listened to it several times. 4.5/5

Ik kende Green Day uit de jaren '90. Eentonige meuk. Dus hier had ik eigenlijk helemaal geen zin in. Maar ik word verrast. Het is een heel volwassen en gebalanceerd album met volwaardige nummers. Ik had het wellicht kunnen weten met een hit als Wake Me Up When September Ends. 3,5 ster.

Not sure how to rate this really, when I was a teenager I would have given it an easy 5, but I've mellowed on Green Day a lot since then, and I find a lot of these songs fairly cringe inducing now. Some of the deeper cuts (Give Me Novacaine, Extraordinary Girl, Letterbomb) though still hold up, maybe because they weren't played to death! A 3 seems appropriate,but maybe I'll round it up to 4 for the sake of nostalgia and cultural pact (which can't really be denied).

I think the hit rate on this is pretty damn good. It's fairly consistent across the board too. Really upbeat, nice catchy songs. I always thought of Green Day as super quick, pop-punky songs, but there's plenty of longer ones on here too that still work well.

I guess what appeals to me most about this album, other than the catchy-as-hell pop punk, is the rock opera feel of the whole thing. This is the story of Jimmy, a suburban kid from Jesusland trying to make his way in a world of rock n roll and politics, trying to live in a divided America where everyone is drawing lines in the sand.