As George said in Blackadder, I am as excited as a very excited person who's got a special reason to be excited.Anyone with a pair of working ears can tell that musically speaking, the past few years has been as stony as a biblical execution but halfway through May, the 15th to be exact, things are certain to pick up because the excellent Green Day are releasing their eighth studio album.
With their last album 'American Idiot' doing so well and attracting a new generation of fans, it is surprising that they have taken 5 years to follow it up but if 21st Century Breakdown is anywhere near as good as the politically charged American Idiot, it would have been worth the wait.
The band do seem to divide opinion and of course, if it's a music debate involving attention-seekers ex-punks, you know John Lydon isn't going to be far from the action and sure enough, punks top banana slipped in a few words of his own when asked about Green Day, referring to them as "a wank outfit".
So Johnny may not be waiting in the queue on the 15th but many will, hopefully not out off by the press releases that claim the album is influenced by Queen, Bruce Springsteen, The Who, The Beatles, and The Clash. The public relation team may want to miss out those middle three bands in future releases.
It continues that "The Album follows a young couple, Christian and Gloria, through the mess and promise of the century so far. Musically, the album continues the rock opera style of American Idiot".
I'm sure that the argument about what genre they fit into will rear its head as usual, i would drop them into the tray marked Punk just for the style of music they play and the political message they now seem to carry but they could quite as easily be thrown into the box marked common or garden guitar band.
Anyway, i like them and especially admire the albums artwork which is heavily influenced by our very own grafitti artist, Banksy. We can just hope that the Album is more heavily influenced by Queen and The Clash than Wal Marts Bruce Springsteen.
4 comments:
Lucy,
That sure is a lot of mental energy spent on escapism and imagery...
Q
proof that green day spans a couple of generations? both my 17 year old child and i like them. american idiot was a masterpiece, but i am equally fond of their early releases, which i learned of via my then-teen son. hurrah for escapism and mental imagery!
You can't beat a good old bit of escapsim and imagery Q, and they do make damn fine songs.
Five years on and i still play American Idiot on the CD player Annie, just a great album. Just a bit worried about the Bruce Springsteen influence on this album though. Don't know what it is, but something just doesn't sit right with me about him.
I'd like to register another vote for escapism and imagery here! Green Day themselves aren't my cup of tea, but my life would be so much the poorer - in fact, it would be unimaginable - without music and the arts.
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