American Idiot [Silver Colored Vinyl] [B&N Exclusive Feature]

by Green Day

Overview

It's a bit tempting to peg Green Day's sprawling, ambitious, brilliant seventh album, American Idiot, as their version of a Who album, the next logical step forward from the Kinks-inspired popcraft of their underrated 2000 effort, Warning, but things aren't quite that simple. American Idiot is an unapologetic, unabashed rock opera, a form that Pete Townshend pioneered with Tommy, but Green Day doesn't use that for a blueprint as much as they use the Who's mini-opera "A Quick One, While He's Away," whose whirlwind succession of 90-second songs isn't only emulated on two song suites here, but provides the template for the larger 13-song cycle. But the Who are only one of many inspirations on this audacious, immensely entertaining album. The story of St. Jimmy has an arc similar to Huesker Due's landmark punk-opera Zen Arcade, while the music has grandiose flourishes straight out of both Queen and Rocky Horror Picture Show (the '50s pastiche "Rock and Roll Girlfriend" is punk rock Meat Loaf), all tied together with a nervy urgency and a political passion reminiscent of the Clash, or all the anti-Reagan American hardcore bands of the '80s. These are just the clearest touchstones for American Idiot, but reducing the album to its influences gives the inaccurate impression that this is no more than a patchwork quilt of familiar sounds, when it's an idiosyncratic, visionary work in its own right. First of all, part of Green Day's appeal is how they have personalized the sounds of the past, making time-honored guitar rock traditions seem fresh, even vital. With their first albums, they styled themselves after first-generation punk they were too young to hear firsthand, and as their career progressed, the group not only synthesized these influences into something distinctive, but chief songwriter Billie Joe Armstrong turned into a muscular, versatile songwriter in his own right. Warning illustrated their growing musical acumen quite impressively, but here, the music isn't only tougher, it's fluid and, better still, it fuels the anger, disillusionment, heartbreak, frustration, and scathing wit at the core of American Idiot. And one of the truly startling things about American Idiot is how the increased musicality of the band is matched by Armstrong's incisive, cutting lyrics, which effectively convey the paranoia and fear of living in American in days after 9/11, but also veer into moving, intimate small-scale character sketches. There's a lot to absorb here, and cynics might dismiss it after one listen as a bit of a mess when it's really a rich, multi-faceted work, one that is bracing upon the first spin and grows in stature and becomes more addictive with each repeated play. Like all great concept albums, American Idiot works on several different levels. It can be taken as a collection of great songs -- songs that are as visceral or as poignant as Green Day at their best, songs that resonate outside of the larger canvas of the story, as the fiery anti-Dubya title anthem proves -- but these songs have a different, more lasting impact when taken as a whole. While its breakneck, freewheeling musicality has many inspirations, there really aren't many records like American Idiot (bizarrely enough, the Fiery Furnaces' Blueberry Boat is one of the closest, at least on a sonic level, largely because both groups draw deeply from the kaleidoscopic "A Quick One"). In its musical muscle and sweeping, politically charged narrative, it's something of a masterpiece, and one of the few -- if not the only -- records of 2004 to convey what it feels like to live in the strange, bewildering America of the early 2000s. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	09/04/2020
Label:	Barnes Noble Consign
UPC:	0093624894704
Rank:	3748

Tracks

Disc 1

1. American Idiot
2. Jesus of Suburbia
3. Holiday
4. Boulevard of Broken Dreams
5. Are We the Waiting
6. St. Jimmy

Disc 2

7. Give Me Novacaine
8. She's a Rebel
9. Extraordinary Girl
10. Letterbomb
11. Wake Me up When September Ends
12. Homecoming
13. Whatsername

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Green Day   Primary Artist
Billie Joe   Guitar,Vocals
Billie Joe Armstrong   Guitar,Vocals,Lead Vocals
Rob Cavallo   Piano
Kathleen Hanna   Vocals,Guest Artist
Mike Dirnt   Bass,Vocals,Vocals (Background)
Jason Freese   Saxophone
Tre Cool   Drums,Vocals

Technical Credits

Green Day   Audio Production,Composer,Lyricist,Producer
Rob Cavallo   Audio Production,Producer
Doug McKean   Audio Engineer,Engineer,Recording
Ted Jensen   Mastering,Mastering Engineer
Billie Joe Armstrong   Composer,Lyricist
Mike Fasano   Drum Technician
Chris Dugan   Engineer
Jimmy Hoyson   Assistant Engineer
Jimmy Brown   Assistant Engineer
Reto Peter   Engineer,Recording
Nigel Lundemo   Digital Editing
Tim James   Mixing
Chris Lord-Alge   Mixing
Mike Dirnt   Composer,Lyricist
Brian Vibberts   Engineer,Assistant Engineer
Michael Pritchard   Composer
Marina Chavez   Photography
Kenny Butler   Drum Technician
Bill Schneider   Guitar Technician
Greg Burns   Engineer,Assistant Engineer
Chris Bilheimer   Art Direction,Design,Photography
Joe "Bledsoe" Brown   Assistant Engineer
Joe Brown   Assistant Engineer
Frank E. Wright III   Composer
Dmitar Krnjaic   Engineer,Mixing Engineer,Mixing Assistant,Assistant Engineer
Cheryl Jenets   Project Coordinator
Mike Pritchard   Composer
Monika Clinger   A&R,A&R Assistance
Tre Cool   Lyricist,Composer