Top10 Albums of 2009: #9

9.) 21st Century Breakdown- Green Day

Best Song: 21^st Century Breakdown

This is without a doubt the best Green Day has every done. I could just stop there and let this monster of an album speak for itself but then why would I have bothered writing anything in the first place. With this album Billie Joe Armstrong has defiantly cemented that Pete Townshend is his personal guru. Townshend, with all his rock operas both mini and full (in fact the Itunes deluxe edition of this album has Green Day tackling A Quick One, While He’s Away with awesome results) never sacrificed melody and catchiness for the sake of the “plot”. And that is always the problem I had with American Idiot. It always seemed to focus on its “message” before the music, even if some of it was great.

But that problem is completely gone on 21^st Century Break Down. In fact out of 18 tracks there is only one complete misfire. “Know Your Enemy” is just a dumb bad song. It is a leap backwards for Green Day. Not to loud, not to soft, not to melodic, not to smart, and just plain not to good. But that is just one out of 18! On the other hand the tile track is the absolute pinnacle of what Green Day has become. That Townshend reference wasn’t just for kicks; they are caring the banner of The Who. They rock hard. They have good pop sensibility. They art with out getting too pretentious; and they do it all with out missing a beat. Other songs not to miss are “Before the Lobotomy” “Viva La Gloria (Little Girl)” and “21 Guns”