A Punk Rock Opera

You wouldn't think the guys from Green Day would mature into a nicely-rounded, sensitive, and (shhh...political) punk rock band. But yes they have, with their new concept album American Idiot.

It's their most fully realized musical statement to date, filled with hooks and melody aplenty. Each song is instantly hummable. And while the whole idea of a concept album reeks of 70's-era excess (think middle eastern mountain ranges and navel-gazing psychedelic cheese), Green Day manage to pack a story about a disaffected schizophrenic youth with religious and authority issues coming to age in the media-overload world of today. Or something like that.

But you can just ignore the backstory and enjoy the music, man. There's the drop-dead gorgeous ballad, Wake Me Up When September Ends, about growing old, dealing with the passing of a loved one, and maybe - indirectly - dealing with the whole tragedy that befell the U.S. in a cold September day three years ago.

The only misstep is the pretentious (and there has to be some of that with any concept album) nine-minute Homecoming. While the other nine-minute opus on the album, Jesus Of Suburbia, succeeds musically and lyrically, Homecoming tries to tie up all the plot's loose ends but ultimately winds up sounding like a mess of half-finished ideas.

Anyway, it's an album I can't get enough of. Check it out. I'll end with my favorite lyric:

"Welcome to a new kind of tension
All across the Alienation."