WARNER RECORDS American Idiot

Product Description Produced by Rob Cavallo, American Idiot is not only Green Day's most ambitious album to date, but also perhaps one of the most audacious efforts in the history of punk. Centred around two five-part, nine minute epics ("Jesus Of Suburbia" and "Homecoming"), 'American Idiot' is an expansive and intimately crafted concept album, detailing the alienation and disillusionment of the American citizen under Bush's post-War On Terror administration. "Jesus Of Suburbia" sees Green Day crossing genres at will to convey their story, mixing stomping melodic punk with elements of classic American rock, sun-kissed harmonies, a hint of psychedelia and Billie Joe singing plaintively over a lone acoustic. Elsewhere, Green Day's talent for reflective, melancholy sounds is pushed to the forefront with "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" which finds them at their evocative best, and with "Are We The Waiting", possibly the most beautiful song ever to feature an old-school terrace chant. But it's with "When September Ends" that Green Day fully realise their strength at combining the tender with the powerful. The title-track rages with the aggression and infectiousness that typifies the best of the band's prior work, whilst a host of other tracks including the breakneck punk of "St Jimmy" and the power-pop of "Extraordinary Girl" remind us exactly why Green Day were so good in the first place. Amazon.co.uk There's a clenched fist grasping a heart-shaped hand grenade on the cover of American Idiot, a militant mural presumably designed to inform us that Californian punk-pop vets Green Day love America but hate what's becoming of it. Inferences aside, you could argue that American Idiot is a suspect device--a punk concept album/rock opera primed to blow up in the faces of the ruling right-wing American classes but which could just as easily leave splattered egg on the faces of the insurrectionists. The concept is fuzzy (telly-brainwashed teenage runaway falls in with the wrong crowd, something or other happens with drugs, rock and a character called "Whatsername") and the political protestations against the metaphorical Arrnies and Dubyas are mere slapstick custard pies compared with the Dead Kennedys' CIA-bothering debunking of Reaganomics. However, something about American Idiot both excites and rings true whilst simultaneously beggaring belief. Spanning influences from The Who's Tommy to Husker Du's Zen Arcade, American Idiot has the listener living in cliff-hanging fear of an unexpected Richie Blackmore guitar solo or Tarkus-style ELP exposition but actually never strays from Buzzcockian melodiousness or phlegm-drenched rifferama even when things get ridiculous. "Homecoming", for example, is probably the best amalgamation of The Clash, Pink Floyd's The Wall, Millwall football supporters terrace chants, Deep Purple, The Levellers, Bob Mould, UK Subs, Rush, Pete Townsend and The Tubes you'll ever hear. American Idiot could be brave or it could be stupid, but it really can't be ignored. --Kevin Maidment