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List Price: $18.98 | | Label: Reprise Records
Salesrank: 110
Released: May 15, 2009 |
| Our Price: $9.35 |
| Used Price: $5.52 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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21st Century Breakdown Track Listing:
1. Song of the Century
2. 21st Century Breakdown
3. Know Your Enemy
4. ¡Viva La Gloria!
5. Before the Lobotomy
6. Christian's Inferno
7. Last Night on Earth
8. East Jesus Nowhere
9. Peacemaker
10. Last of the American Girls
11. Murder City
12. ¿Viva La Gloria? [Little Girl]
13. Restless Heart Syndrome
14. Horseshoes and Handgrenades
15. The Static Age
16. 21 Guns
17. American Eulogy: A. Mass Hysteria/B. Modern World
18. See the Light
Editorial Review:
2009 release, the Punk trio's long-awaited eighth studio album,. 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 #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."
21st Century Breakdown Reviews:
Haunting echo of Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune 
2009-12-11 - 21st Century Breakdown is little more than a 21st century breakthrough. In this album Green Day have finally brought to the forefront their utmost creative power. Structurally it nearly matches typical sonata form, being one movement short. A brilliant innovation! In Act I Heroes and Cons we hear the heavy influence Arvo Pärt's tintinnabulum technique, and its crescendo is reached during a furious fugue for electric guitar in "Last Night on Earth."
Act II Charlatans and Saints is less musical innovation than polemic. This is the album's weakest segment and I have little to add to the band's message. Vive la liberté!
The third act, Horseshoes and Handgrenades, is a haunting modern take on Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, almost too beautiful for words. Instead of the flute solo to begin, the band erupts into an angry teen anthem about not being kept down by the man. In this track the influence of William Vollmann is heard in addition to Debussy, most pointedly in the chorus:
Maybe you're the runner up
But the first one to lose the race
Almost only really counts in
Horsehoes and hand grenades
It's like Debussy and Vollmann fused into some angry monster and slugged me in the face. An awe-inspiring experience, beautiful and violent and somewhat frightening.
I don't know how Green Day plans to top this album, but they can rest assured that I will be listening when they try.
Amazingly Consistent 
2009-12-01 - I haven't seen such consistency in a rock album since Led Zeppelin's fourth or Cat Stevens' Tea for the Tillerman. While I loved American Idiot, that album was mixed for me in that it had several truly great songs, but a large number that I didn't much like at all.
This album has each and every song rated four stars in my iTunes (not counting the intro track). I can just put on the whole album and enjoy listening to everything, which is not something I can say to the vast majority of albums. True, this one doesn't have as many five-star ratings (my opinion) as American Idiot, but it more than makes up for it with the entire splendid lineup.
not your old school Green Day..
2009-11-27 - Ok, I've been a fan of Green Day since they came on the scene, and I've loved every album they have produced. When I bought this CD, I was expecting the old Green Day, which is tremendous. Instead, I felt like I had gotten a whole new band. I even checked the cd cover to see if I had even gotten the right band because it sounded so different! To tell you the truth, I even shelved it for a while and did not give it a chance. Fast forward to the release of "Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen", and I heard "21 Guns" on the soundtrack(another excellent album, by the way). This song is so good that it will stay in your head..lol. I took it out and started listening to the CD, and now I can't stop listening to it. "American Eulogy" sounds like the old Green Day, and is excellent. The first thing I really notice about some of the songs was how piano-dominated they are. It kind of reminds me of the old school 80's ballads with a good mix of classic Green Day. I've seen a lot of complaining about the politic message that the band is trying to send through the album. Don't let this scare you. To be perfectly honest, most of the Green Day lyrics are difficult to understand anyway. So I must of missed them..lol. I will say if your a fan of Green Day in the past, give this album some time to grow on you and you'll never put it down.
They keep getting worse and that's pretty hard to do. 
2009-11-24 - This band keeps sucking worse and worse on every release. I mean these no-talent posers are not the same band that released Dookie....which ironically is their only good album....this album should have been called Dookie or better yet Monkey Dookie Supreme. The songs on here make you want to kill yourself, or in my case just kill this annoying, sucky, horrid embrassment to the human race band. Pathetic garbage that talent deaf fans will reward these posers for.
Can't get into it.... 
2009-11-23 - I bought this the first day it was released as I was looking forward to it after the greatness of "American Idiot". At first I didn't immediately like it so I thought I would give it a little more time to sink in. Well, its been awhile since it was released and I'm sorry to say that my initial feeling for the cd is the same. I just don't find myself wanting to listen to it like "American Idiot" or "Basket Case". Maybe its because I've never been a huge fan of concept albums. Anyways....sorry for the negative review as a really like Green Day. Maybe the next one will be for me.
