Negative Review of 21CB in SPIN

[b u r n o u t]

I take reviews about anything with a grain of salt, so yeah I'll let my ears be the judge.

[Nele]

or to at least put down the Wii long enough to acknowledge that they need saving.

I laughed at that. I think the whole article was quite funny.

And hey, who cares about such a jaundiced guy anyway?

[The Disappearing Boy]

I have yet to read the article, but i'm willing to bet that the article doesn't actually bash Green Day, but give an honest opinion on the album. Which some of you are fine with if the opinion is that it's good.

I'll read the article properly later, and I'll be fully prepared to eat humble pie, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

i haven't read the article either coz spin.com makes my computer die, but in line with what you are saying, i don't mind a negative review, if the review is balanced and professionally written, but if it is like the review that was on clashmusic.com (here), where the author is just being downright rude, that is what i don't like.

[thenextsexpistol_mak]

who gives a shit? green day rocks

[Mommy's Little Nightmare]

I love how SPIN will be all negative about the album, but once it's out and they see all the people that love it, they're gonna be all "We should interview Green Day!" and then have them on the cover or something, and be kissing their ass. It irritates me when magazines do that.

[GreenPunkPrincess]

Bashing is became like a sport now. Hahaha.

Green Day rocks, fuck the (bad) critiques!

[Zalex]

I don't read reviews because I don't particulary care what critics think.

Same. I dont feel the need to read a breakdown of each song BEFORE i hear them either.

[The Punk]

You know, you don't have to write "DJ Rossstar" at the end of every single post. We can see your username.

I was going to say the exact same thing xD

[Comrade]

Well even the best albums around have their detractors, it was inevitale that 21stcb would. But seeing as the other revies have been 4-4.5 so far, I'll take this with a pinch of salt....by and large the album's impressed the reviewers. I'd agree that you shouldn't bash the review, even if you don't agree with it.

I'm looking forward to reviewing it myself, but chances are I won't get it until release day, the cheap twats that I work for are...

[bass boy]

I don't read reviews because I don't particulary care what critics think.

^That

[rage-love-life]

alright review...I'll let the music speak for itself when I get it.

[The Disappearing Boy]

who gives a shit? green day rocks

truth!

[Trotsky]

My impression of skimming this article is that it was written by someone who unconditionally worships Obama.

[Mommy's Little Nightmare]

My impression of skimming this article is that it was written by someone who unconditionally worships Obama.

I kinda got that impression too. The references and little remarks made about Obama by the author kinda seemed to show some upset that they'd be willing to question him at all.

[brekka]

It doesn't particularly bother me if an album gets a bad review. If i like it, that's all i care about really.

honestly, if they find the album to be a diappointment, it's only their loss.

if they like their music spelled out to them like: lets screw a couple a dem' hoes....

they're obviously not going to like music you're going to actually have to put thought into.

let's get serious.

i'm sure the album is going to be amazing.

[Trotsky]

I kinda got that impression too. The references and little remarks made about Obama by the author kinda seemed to show some upset that they'd be willing to question him at all.

Which is pretty retarded.

The article barely touches on the music in comparison to WHINE WHINE WHINE Obama changed things so why are Green Day still pissed? WHINE WHINE WHINE

[Kate Austen]

You know what I hate more than negative Green Day reviews? People who bash reviewers' opinions.

Agree.

Except IMO SPIN has gone down hill these past couple of years. I'm not just saying that because of this, I've been saying it for a year now. I've subscribed to them three years, and their writing has just gone down hill.

It also seems like they have a hard on for bashing Concept albums. They just don't like them.

[Radioactive1]

Tbh I can imagine a lot of reviewers not liking the album.

[Trotsky]

You know what I hate more than negative Green Day reviews? People who bash reviewers' opinions.

Opinion wars can go on forever and expecting them to stop somewhere isn't practical.

[**nobodylikesyou**]

My impression of skimming this article is that it was written by someone who unconditionally worships Obama.

wait, there are people out there like that? wtf.

[brekka]

Opinion wars can go on forever and expecting them to stop somewhere isn't practical.

agreed.

people ARE entitled to their opinions.

even if their opinions are assinine.

[tapdancingowl]

I can't read the article because Firefox woke up and decided to bitch-slap me today, apparently. If anyone wants to c/p the article here (if that's allowed), that would be cool.

[Mommy's Little Nightmare]

I can't read the article because Firefox woke up and decided to bitch-slap me today, apparently. If anyone wants to c/p the article here (if that's allowed), that would be cool.

Green Day, '21st Century Breakdown' (Reprise)

Billie Joe Armstrong is still deeply, elaborately bummed -- sorry, Obamaniacs!

By Steve Kandell 04.30.09 12:00 PM

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It only follows that a band whose breakthrough hit contemplated the virtues of lazing around on a couch and jerking off would go on to craft an apocalyptic concept album condemning institutionalized lethargy. In 1994, Billie Joe Armstrong whined, "I got no motivation"; in 2009, he's shouting, "Gimme gimme revolution," rallying a doomed generation to save themselves, or to at least put down the Wii long enough to acknowledge that they need saving.

For 20 years, Green Day have tried to navigate the chasm between their punker-than-thou Gilman Street roots and their everydude appeal. The band's post-Dookie output yielded diminishing returns until 2004's American Idiot married proggy architecture -- it's an opera! -- and meaty pop-punk hooks to W.-bashing screeds for an unexpected blockbuster that, ironically, pushed Green Day from snarky navel-gazing toward a rancorous agitprop that even their most orthodox detractors might begrudgingly appreciate.

Conventional wisdom dictates that the follow-up, even one that comes five years later, should be a gritty grab for street cred. Instead, Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tré Cool push Idiot's conceits even further on 21st Century Breakdown, a slick, class-obsessed, 70-minute, 18-song, three-act cycle that trades Bush-era indignation for Obama-era resignation. So much for HOPE and CHANGE.

There's some stretching stylistically: two different songs called "Viva la Gloria!" open with piano, while the lush, mid-tempo "Last Night on Earth" and "Restless Heart Syndrome" ape mid-period Beatles, or maybe just Oasis. (Armstrong has bemoaned the cultural ubiquity of "Good Riddance [Time of Your Life]," yet he keeps rewriting that song.) If the Cars did a tune about impending nuclear winter, it might sound like "Last of the American Girls." Yet most tracks that start off on unfamiliar terrain generally return to barre-chord-and-bashing core, almost as if Green Day are antsy about not sounding like Green Day for too long. The quasi-mariachi rave-up "Peacemaker" is an argument for committing to that sense of abandon. But for an album-length rock opera about staving off the end of days, 21st Century Breakdown feels terribly comfortable.

The considerable sheen of Butch Vig's production lightens the gloomy antimodernity, but no song here commands your attention like "American Idiot." "Horseshoes and Handgrenades," with Armstrong's clarion call "I'm not fucking around!" comes closest, but the energy seems directionless. There was humor in Green Day's vitriol last time around, and that's sorely missed here. Maybe it's just easier to write about anger than fatigue; Cormac McCarthy's The Road didn't have a lot of jokes in it, either. Certainly, any stick-it-to-the-man rhetoric runs the risk of being compromised when that rhetoric makes its national debut before the NCAA finals, as did sloganeering lead single "Know Your Enemy," but Green Day are hardly the first well-intentioned megastars to rage within the machine.

Ultimately, the question isn't whether multiplatinum success has cost Green Day the right to protest, only whether that protest feels vital. It's hard to know what to make of taunts like "You're a sacrificial suicide / Like a dog that's been sodomized." As with many good punks before him, Armstrong is better at voicing gripes than offering solutions, which makes him a tricky choice to lead a revolution. If we're gonna come with you, you gotta tell us where we're goin'.

[GTI]

I was going to say the exact same thing xD

I believe it's just his sig, he doesn't actually type it in every post.

[14razorbacks]

You know what I hate more than negative Green Day reviews? People who bash reviewers' opinions.

Yeah, I agree. Reviewers should be totally immortal. After all, most reviewers never have and never will make a good record - or any record - in their lives. That makes them godlike, and we should definitely respect their opinions no matter what they are.