American Idiot (2004)
13 tracks, 57 minutes
Spotify ∙ iTunes
Much like yesterday's album, this is one that I came to as a teenager that didn't make me as cool as I thought it did. Unlike yesterday's, I can't really remember where I came across this one. Maybe I saw them on telly, Later…with Jools Holland or something, or maybe one of my friends put me on to them, I'm not sure. Whichever way, this wasn't music I usually listened to. I'd had some exposure to 70s British punk as part of standard cultural consciousness, but Green Day were the first band of the American punk lineage that I really got to grips with.
I think American Idiot is a real teenage album, and considering it came out when I was 13, it got me at exactly the right time. This music felt so raw, energetic and exciting, and even quite subversive. Maybe this was my chance to be a rebel properly for once! Or at least it was until I mentioned it to my parents and my dad said 'oh yeah, Green Day, they're good them, your brother used to play them a lot about 10 years ago.' GOD, dad you’re so lame.
Anyway, I still loved it. A lot of the songs, especially the most famous in 'American Idiot' and 'Holiday', are angry-political in an uncomplicated and non-nuanced way that is very appealing for kids who are just about becoming politically aware: they seem to have a deeper purpose than the impotent anger of classic punk ('Anarchy in the UK', 'Boredom', 'Pretty Vacant' etc) but without the need to be anything more than vaguely aware of world politics as it was happening. And then there are a bunch of tracks that are basically Teen Angst: The Soundtrack and I am completely okay with that – teen angst is a very important seam to mine.
What is really excellent is that – to my ears at least – this album hasn't aged a jot, musically. Yes, lyrically it's a bit childish, but the album is just as listenable from an entertainment standpoint as it ever was. There are tracks that are straight-up loud, fast and chaotic punk; there are slower, more weighty tunes; there are long medleys that ride a range of emotions and musical styles united by a common theme; there's even a piece based on a sample of tabla and tambura that is nowhere near as cringy as that sounds.
Much like I came into hip-hop just as my peers decided it wasn't cool any more, the same thing happened with Green Day: here's a band that has been part of the zeitgeist in their particular field for a long time, they release an album that I really connect with musically and emotionally and…well, fans of the band tend to agree that American Idiot was the turning point of Green Day, the album where they sold out for a more mainstream audience. Ho hum. That's up to them. As for me, I'll keep letting my inner teenager rock out to 'Holiday' more frequently than is perhaps dignified, but for a long time to come.
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