Reprise Records have just unleashed Green Day's
long-awaited eighth studio album - '21st Century Breakdown'. The album is the
best-selling trio's first studio album since 2004's two-time Grammy Award-winning
punk-rock opera 'American Idiot', which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart,
spawned five hit singles, and went on to sell more than 12 million copies worldwide.
'21st
Century Breakdown' is divided into three acts: "Heroes and Cons," "Charlatans
and Saints," and "Horseshoes and Handgrenades," and follows a young
couple, Christian and Gloria, through the mess and promise of the century so far.
Songs include "Know Your Enemy", "21 Guns", "East Jesus
Nowhere", "Before the Lobotomy", and "Restless Heart Syndrome."
In a recent feature, Rolling Stone called the album "even more ambitious
than American Idiot" and "a record of diehard punk ideals…tightly
scripted, continually ascending classic-rock excitement." Singer-guitarist
Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool have been at work
writing, arranging, and recording '21st Century Breakdown' since early 2006 which
was produced by Butch Vig (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage).
Of the
album, Dirnt says, "I don't know if you'd call it a 'concept album,' but
there's a thread that connects everything. The songs are defiant, but also defiantly
hopeful, referencing the unsettled political climate as well as more personal
and generational turmoils. Its blend of claustrophobia and freedom is well illustrated
by the album's cover art, which depicts a tight shot of a young couple kissing
against a graffiti-covered wall."
'21st
Century Breakdown', featuring the first single, "Know Your Enemy," is
available now.
