American Idiot

Love this album. One of my all time favourites. Instant classic.

I was 16 when this album came out, and a big fan of Greenday, especially Dookie, and for some reason I just hated this album. Probably that hipster thing of hating how popular greenday became with casual fans and being that guy who kept raving about their older stuff.

Listening back as a more mature adult, this album is better than my 16 year old self gave it credit for. Probably deserves its place on the list, but won’t be making my frequent rotation anytime soon.

Is it punk? Nah. Are these complex songs with a lot of depth? Also no. Is this an 'anti-american' and political album? Nah, not really. Was this 'punk-opera' the first of its kind? Nope, been done several times before.

But is it a fun, catchy and just rocking album? Sure as hell it is!

I had a better time with this than Dookie, but I think that's mostly from familiarity (I'll cop to kinda liking "Holiday/Boulevard of Broken Dreams," but otherwise I've really disliked their stuff). I'm definitely in the age cohort such that this one was a big, big deal to people when it came out, so it was nostalgic to play this and realize I knew each song on here really well. But it's also interesting to pull the lists of what else was going on in rock music at the time, and 2004 had a lot going on! Like that's the year that brings us Franz Ferdinand and "Hot Fuss," Modest Mouse released "Good News," White Stripes had just put out "Elephant" the previous year... idk I know emo went strong into the aughts, but my personal big music touchpoints for that era tended to be alt-rock/indie stuff.

Admittedly, I'm not the biggest Green Day fan, and I remember finding the songs from this album pretty trite when they came out. But in the context of this album, they become part of a larger whole that ebbs and flows organically. I love the idea of a punk concept album as well.

God I hate Green Day. Almost all of their famous songs either sound goofy, cheesy, or rip-off another song. You can argue that "songs sound like other songs" all the time in music, but Green Day does it so much that they constantly get called out for it, and that obnoxious voice only detracts from these iconic songs. Now, I will admit most of these rip-off songs are not on this album, but that doesn't excuse my hatred of this whiney ass band. So, let's just say I'm not going into this album with the most neutral mindset of these pop punk shit.

Alright, this isn't any better. His vocals still suck, and knowing almost every song in some way just made me know right when it started I hated it. And why, oh why, is a punk album, what's know for being short and sometimes sweet, have multiple way too long songs. I realize they are usually multiple songs in one, but they are always listed as one, so they shall be punished as one. Just awful. Have no clue why pop punk is such a popular genre.

Yläasteella taas. Oman aikansa kuva, ja edelleen toimii ihan hyvin! 3/5

This album was the soundtrack of my youth. an exhuberant, dread inducing, landmark of the bush era that says no to war, no to isolation, and a send up to the human spirit.

A stone cold classic, the best album they ever made and one of the best of the century so far. Another band I saw live, on the tour for their album following this one, and a band who put everything into each show.
Was never likely to be less than full marks, but listening again confirmed it as entirely deserving of 5 big 🌟

I am very familiar with Green Day. They were a big part of my formative years with music. The first cassette of theirs I ever owned was Nimrod, and I loved it. After that, I went out and bought Insomniac and Dookie.

American Idiot came out when I was in university, and got a lot of air play on both Much Music, as well as the university radio station. There were quite a few singles released off of this record: Holiday, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Wake Me Up When September Ends, American Idiot, and Jesus of Suburbia.

The song Holiday reminds me of the movie Accepted every time I hear it.

This album is fantastic. 2 songs (Jesus of Suburbia and Homecoming) are 9 minutes long each, but there are tempo changes throughout, so really each of them is like 4-5 songs.

Overall, I love this band and this album. So great, I listened to it twice.

Favourite songs: Holiday/Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Wake Me Up When September Ends, American Idiot, Jesus of Suburbia, Are We the Waiting/St. Jimmy

Least favourite songs: if forced to pick one, Whatsername

5/5

Has a couple of decent songs, but I definitely prefer earlier Green Day. Nothing they have done post-Dookie is that amazing IMO (although this is probably the best).

A punk rock musical? Nine minunte long medleys? What am I listening to?

Well, shame on me for writting these guys off after Dookie. This is an album that was made at a serious inflection point for the band, and what they came up with is a real coming of age for the group. It took courage for the group to step out of the mold they'd been cast in and what they came up with is something that I really enjoyed.

The album started off on an almost 50's pop production, amped through heavy distortion, but then I hit the 1:50 mark on "Jesus of Suburbia" and the vibe started changing. From that point on the story telling took over and the album gave way to an unfolding narrative. I was struck with the realization that I had heard a fair amount of this album in radio hits, but I had no idea how they fit together (i.e. "Holiday" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" are conjoined!). Since I hadn't heard the entire album, I didn't fully appreciate the songs in context and I was missing out on the goodness that didn't make the radio.

The album includes plenty of flexes from the band's punk core ("St. Jimmy"), but they don't stay contrained by it, rebelling against their constraints. And maybe it's that spirit that really makes this album so good. After all - isn't that what punk is about?

idiota americando da minha juventude idiota

Of all the pop punk bands, I think Green Day is the only one I actually enjoy on some level. I've only heard Dookie through Nimrod before though. I've seen this album get alot of praise and I wanted to give it a 3 when I first started listening but as the album goes on I feel like it collapses under its own weight. I respect the ambition but it was a bit of a chore to get through.