Don’t wanna be an American Idiot.
We’d bet the deed to JOE HQ that you just hummed the the next few bars of American Idiot to yourself.
Green Day had been at the forefront of the pop-punk movement throughout the nineties, but American Idiot propelled them into a punk rock pantheon. Before American Idiot, Green Day’s preserve had been that of playful-but-platitudinous punk rock.
In 2004, the consensus would have been that Green Day had peaked no less than a decade prior with Dookie, which remains the band’s best-selling album. Sophomore syndrome soon kicked in, and Green Day released three albums – Insomniac, Nimrod and Warning – each one was moments of brilliance hosted in the middle of the road.
American Idiot was a sharp deviation from the meandering medium that Green Day had wandered into. An America increasingly dissatisfied with an unjust war and an economy of downward slopes needed somebody to take the establishment on – and as we’ve seen with The Sex Pistols, The Clash and every other punk band with a political statement – one of the easiest way to take on the establishment is through blunt lyrics and very simple chord progressions.
And therein lies the beauty of the record. Green Day grew no more complex in their pursuit of punk rock perfection – only more ambitious. With American Idiot, Green Day infinitely expanded what can be communicated through the repetition of Em-G-C-D. Billie Joe Armstrong’s lyrics immaculately capture the desolation, the abandonment and frustration that middle America was feeling and did it no fuss and no muss, just good old fashioned, easy-to-play punk rock.
We’ve ranked the albums five best songs below:
5) Boulevard of Broken Dreams
As blink-182 progressed, they somehow lost their ability to write a sincerely sad song (compare Adam’s Song with Stay Together For The Kids). Green Day, on the other hand, fell straight out of the frivolity of their twenties in a much starker place. Real talent is when you can write a song that bums everybody the hell out and still get overplayed to death.
Boulevard of Broken Dreams was a song about hollow isolation, musically straightforward as ever with an unforgettable melody, a busker’s wet dream. This is the song that took Green Day out of a niche and put them on a plinth.
4) Holiday
At times, it seemed as though Armstrong was aiming for American Idiot to be a political statement without anything specific to say. Holiday was the album’s most direct critique of conservative culture. The track’s well-polished punk had all the likability of a Foo Fighters track, laced with the kind of subversive venom that made American Idiot such a unique mainstream album.
Holiday is the pinnacle of radio-friendly protest rock music.
3) Homecoming
Jesus of Suburbia and Homecoming are the two most ambitious tracks on the album. Both last about nine minutes and are split into 5 distinct acts. Jesus of Suburbia effectively opens the album’s story, which follows the desolate eponymous Jesus of Suburbia through a lovelorn, lonely journey. The execution of both sprawling, genre-bending songs were integral to the success of American Idiot.
We’ve gone with Homecoming for it’s painful, paranoid, sing-song refrain of ‘Nobody likes, everyone left you, they’re all out without you… having fun.’ Either could have made the list.
2) Extraordinary Girl
Sometimes you can’t look past the sentimental value of a song. Extraordinary Girl was a real heartbreaker about a girl who’s too special for her own set of circumstances. I’d say we all know one, but I first heard this song when I was 11 years old. If an 11-year old me, still thinking that girls had cooties, could have his heartstrings thoroughly plucked by this track then it’s safe to say it was quite an emotional powerhouse.
1) Letterbomb
Letterbomb is Billie Joe Armstrong’s finest ever songwriting. While American Idiot is possibly without a single misstep, Letterbomb is where this project is tied together. After nine tracks of heart-wrenching defeat (and three more to follow), Letterbomb is this album’s one hopeful note – and no song on the album is played or sung with more conviction
The drums are relentless, the rhythm is spotless, the lyrics are ruthless. On this track, the album’s themes of ‘rage and love’ slot together seamlessly, not an inch of one sacrificed for the other: It’s not over until you’re underground, it’s not over before it’s too late, this city’s burnin’, it’s not my burden, it’s not over before it’s too late.’
Sad, hopeful, high-octane punk rock perfection.
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