We'll travel south cross land

in other news, I enjoyed America Idiot and plan to pick up Green Day's new record, which got a great review from the Washington Post:

Green Day Delivers Another Rock Opus Most Righteous

By J. Freedom du Lac
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 15, 2009

Apparently, the Green Day dudes weren't kidding about their Serious Protest Singer phase.

Five years ago, when the long-running Northern California trio released an ambitious, righteous rock opera about living with war, etc., it signaled a serious and surprising growth spurt for a snot-slinging band of brats previously known for making caca jokes and pop-punk songs about boredom, bong hits and masturbation.

Yet it worked -- and how: "American Idiot" was a critical smash and commercial blockbuster that stands as one of the great, galvanizing albums of the new millennium. (As galvanizing as an album with an antiwar bent can be in this increasingly polarized world, anyway.)

Now comes its successor, "21st Century Breakdown," an ambitious, righteous rock opera about . . . still living with war, etc.

But it isn't so much of an ain't-broke-don't-fix-it musical gambit as it is the work of a band that's clearly decided there's much, much more to be said about the state of the union, which apparently still isn't quite right.

Thus, "21st Century Breakdown" is an "American Idiot" sorta-sequel that's every bit as potent as the original, even if the story at the heart of the song cycle doesn't always track.

It's a nonlinear narrative in three acts about Gloria and Christian, two (relatively) young adults who are trying to make sense of post-9/11 America, which appears to be a rather inhospitable place. Their leaders -- political, familial, religious, business and otherwise -- have left them feeling disenfranchised and despairing, with pessimism prevailing over Obama-era hope. Not for nothing is the album's penultimate track titled "American Eulogy."

. . . . . read the rest