Longview

Green Day's Dookie and 21st Century Breakdown

As one of the first pop-punk groups to score a major-label deal, Green Day might've cashed in on their success with a few quickie releases and a pre-millennial breakup. Instead, singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool paced themselves, making incremental improvements every few years until 2004's politically charged American Idiot won over the final holdouts.

Five years later, they've returned with 21st Century Breakdown, an 18-song opus that's nearly as conceptual as its predecessor. This time, Armstrong puts his words into the mouths of Christian and Gloria, a couple of Class of '13 kids who've been damaged by religion, meds and two wars that started when they were in elementary school. The story unfolds over three acts: Boy conscripts girl into an army of two on "Viva La Gloria!" Boy questions girl's commitment to the revolution on the cabaret-tinged "Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl)." Boy carries on a rock 'n' roll tradition by gleefully spelling out "G-L-O-R-I-A" on the fiery "Horseshoes and Handgrenades."

OK, so maybe it's not the best-executed story — too many ballads, too much reliance on the shock of Dirnt and Cool crashing Armstrong's pity party 30, 50, even 80 seconds into a song. But as a singer, he's never sounded better than on 21st Century Breakdown's seven strongest tunes. And for all his focus on his young heroes, Armstrong works best when he's showing his age. "Born into Nixon/ I was raised in hell," he proclaims on the arena-ready title track, and if you get nothing else out of the song, you might still learn enough about what fuels Armstrong's anger to make it worth your while.

The Class of '13 wasn't born yet when Green Day made Dookie, which turned pop-punk shit into platinum. They weren't missing much; with five hits, Armstrong was all over the airwaves long before he had anything worth saying. "When I Come Around" has a smidgen of charm, but whiny self-loathing and stale riffs sink "Basket Case," "Longview" and "Welcome to Paradise." The rest are instantly forgettable. Dookie, it must be said, delivers exactly what its title promises.

(m_fine@citypaper.net)