21st Century Breakdown vs The Trilogy

[Blond-O-Sonic Shimmer Trap]

They haven't made an album as consistent as American Idiot since then, but I suppose every band hits a creative peak at some time. And the albums still have a lot of great songs on them that would be considered their best work. The only bad album is 21st CB and they couldn't be accused of half-assing it (except 21 Guns), they just over reached in trying to follow up the huge success of American Idiot.

Dos is my favourite of the four, but I recognise it has flaws. I am of the view that if they picked the best 12 from the trilogy they'd have made the album of their career. From Dos I'd have Lazy Bones, Wow That's Loud and Stray Heart, but you could make a solid case for Fuck Time, Wild One, Lady Cobra and Amy, so that's 7 of 12 (excluding the intro track). It sounds the least like a Green Day album, where the other trilogy albums feel like them on autopilot at times (all of Uno is quite similar in sound and tempo and the middle of Tre is mostly indistinguishable from one track to the next), and they sound like they're having fun. Wow That's Loud and Stray Heart have a great vintage sound.

21st Century Breakdown is on reflection a pretty bad album. I listened to it a lot when it came out as I would have to any new Green Day after 5 years, but I think I have listened to it once from start to finish since the end of that summer. It's self indulgent, badly produced, it does have a few great songs like Peacemaker and the title track but gets bogged down in trying to be better than American Idiot, trying to have a message when it actually doesn't, trying to squeeze in as many muddled similes as possible. Also it has the abominations that are 21 Guns and Christian's Inferno as well as bloody overplayed to death Know Your Enemy.

Uno isn't great , but it's decent enough to be worth a listen, couple of decent tracks that are some of the best of the trilogy. And a lot of people don't like it but I am a fan of the change up to a clean guitar tone. It makes Oh Love sound fantastic.

Tre is inconsistent. Absolute Green Day classics one minute and banal 21st CB leftovers/rewrites like Drama Queen and The Forgotten the next. Dirty Rotten Bastards, X-Kid and Brutal Love are worth the price of admission alone. 8th Ave, 99 Revs and Little Boy Named Train are solid additions.

[Idiotic Tendency...]

Don't spoiler it! SAY IT LOUD AND PROUD!

21STCB IS THE BEST ALBUM OF ALL TIME!

[WhiteTim]

You've been a fan since Dookie (right?) and your favourite Green Day album is 21st Century Breakdown?

Ladies and gentleman, I present to you a rather rare specimen...

I've been a fan since Dookie and 21st is easily in my top 3 and Dookie below my top 3

[musso_kn]

I've been a fan since Dookie and 21st is easily in my top 3 and Dookie below my top 3

Well then you're both spectacular human beings in my books

Hurrah for the 21CB love!!!

[GenesisJames]

Don't spoiler it! SAY IT LOUD AND PROUD!!

I LOVE 21 CB!!!!!! and so does Idiotic Tendency!!!!!!!! Haha

Can I be part of this if it's my second favorite album, only beaten by American Idiot?

[FatVince]

21st Century Breakdown grew on me but it's still my least favourite Green Day album. I feel this one as as good record but in a kind of music I'm not interested in (for me, it's a pop rock record). The only song I really love is Murder City. But I don't like some songs from this album (Christian's Inferno, Before the Lobotomy, Know Your Enemy). Plus, I don't feel any coherence between the songs, musically. It could sound strange but I think 21stCB is too various. For me, it's hard to be coherent and various at the same time on the record.

On the other side, the Trilogy is my favourite Green Day production since Nimrod (I'm not a fan of American Idiot). I loved ¡Uno! at first listen 'cause he reminded me the Green Day I love, with fast and catchy punk-rock songs (Nuclear Family, Let Yourself Go, Angel Blue). It's coherent. But on the other hand, it misses the various side. ¡Tré! took some time but I feel this album has the qualities 21stCB didn't have: coherent, various and short. There are quality songs as Brutal Love, X-Kid or my favourite trilogy song Missing You (and I have a guilty pleasure for Sex, Drugs & Violence, even if I don't think it's a quality song). ¡Dos! grew on me later but it's officially my fifth favourite Green Day album (after the ones between Kerplunk! and Nimrod). Green Day playing rock'n'roll (even if there is a polished sound in that case). Makeout Party, Wow! That's Loud, Stray Heart, Lady Cobra are my favourite songs from this album. Strangely, it's also the record which contains the only Green Day song I really can't stand, Lazy Bones.

I find this topic very interesting. I like to understand the love for the 21stCB and I love this respectful exchange of OPINIONS. And excuse me if you don't understand me but I prefer to write in English alone and not using GoogleTranslate.

[musso_kn]

21st Century Breakdown grew on me but it's still my least favourite Green Day album. I feel this one as as good record but in a kind of music I'm not interested in (for me, it's a pop rock record). The only song I really love is Murder City. But I don't like some songs from this album (Christian's Inferno, Before the Lobotomy, Know Your Enemy). Plus, I don't feel any coherence between the songs, musically. It could sound strange but I think 21stCB is too various. For me, it's hard to be coherent and various at the same time on the record.

On the other side, the Trilogy is my favourite Green Day production since Nimrod (I'm not a fan of American Idiot). I loved ¡Uno! at first listen 'cause he reminded me the Green Day I love, with fast and catchy punk-rock songs (Nuclear Family, Let Yourself Go, Angel Blue). It's coherent. But on the other hand, it misses the various side. ¡Tré! took some time but I feel this album has the qualities 21stCB didn't have: coherent, various and short. There are quality songs as Brutal Love, X-Kid or my favourite trilogy song Missing You (and I have a guilty pleasure for Sex, Drugs & Violence, even if I don't think it's a quality song). ¡Dos! grew on me later but it's officially my fifth favourite Green Day album (after the ones between Kerplunk! and Nimrod). Green Day playing rock'n'roll (even if there is a polished sound in that case). Makeout Party, Wow! That's Loud, Stray Heart, Lady Cobra are my favourite songs from this album. Strangely, it's also the record which contains the only Green Day song I really can't stand, Lazy Bones.

I find this topic very interesting. I like to understand the love for the 21stCB and I love this respectful exchange of OPINIONS. And excuse me if you don't understand me but I prefer to write in English alone and not using GoogleTranslate.

I understand you perfectly fine. Your English is very good

[Crimpshrine]

I don't know whether to take this seriously or not. And this is a big fuck you to me because...?

Just kidding ! sorry if that was not good to you!!

[JOE THE X-KID]

Wow this is actually a really hard choice

[J of Suburbia]

As a whole, I prefer listening to 21st Century Breakdown front to back over any of the individual trilogy albums, but there are more fun songs in the trilogy. Either way, I don't think you can really compare them cause they both have different sounds but if I had to I'd choose 21st Century Breakdown. The lyrics from songs on the trilogy (for the most part) aren't very good especially when you compare the albums (lyrically) to 21st Century Breakdown. The Trilogy does have tracks that stand out that I prefer to songs on 21st Century Breakdown but I don't know, there's something I like a lot more about 21stCB. There are also just more solid tracks on that album in general, in my opinion.

[Asa.]

Personally I don't think this is even worth asking as the trilogy and 21CB are two completely different sounds for the band.

[michael1989]

I went with Uno, because it was my favourite of the trilogy and the first 5 tracks are the best string of tracks of any of their albums!

21stCB is great, but I feel if it wasn't for 21 Guns, it would lose a couple points. And comparisons are inevitable to AI, which is a far better album.

[Overjoyyed]

I fell in love with them for their rock operas! 21CB was the era where I really was a devoted fan (watched 2 concerts) so it has a special place in my heart.

I love the trilogy but it took some time to grow on me. I still find the lyrical quality sub-par to the rock operas and even Warning.

[Clayish]

21st Century Breakdown has the gems.

[UNICORN VOMIT]

21st Century Breakdown for me is the best written album and it is my most listened to. But I list my top five in this order.

Dookie

AI

21st CB

Tre

Nimrod

[whatsername]

Uno, i love how fun and chilled it is and it is the only album from the trilogy i can play from start to finish. 21STCB is a great album though and is better than the trilogy as a whole.

[AlissaGoesRAWR]

Well, apparently I'm a fuss tot.

i prefer the trilogy as a whole. 21st century breakdown has some gems for sure, and i've actually been listening to it more lately after ignoring it for a year or so. viva la gloria and american eulogy are two of my favorite green day songs ever but kye, see the light, and christian's inferno are my most hated gd songs

if we count the trilogy as one giant album then it's my favorite thing they've ever done other than american idiot.

I guess I don't have to post now, since you pretty much summed up everything for me. I love American Eulogy, but pretty much hate most of 21st. I blame American Idiot. That's the album that introduced me to the band, so trying to follow that up is tough. So maybe I'm overly critical of it. I dunno. Either way, I never willingly play the album front-to-back. It will come up in shuffle occasionally, and I'm just like "mmk, OK," but it really doesn't do much for me. It's like they tried too hard. So, to me, I liked the laid back nature of the trilogy more. But individually, I feel like the albums just don't cut it on the "epic" scale.

So that's why I'm a fuss tot.

[GD4488]

I don't think its fair to compare a trilogy of albums to one single album, but I would still pick 21st century breakdown over the entire trilogy.

[Ham Pascale]

I went with Dos. I can hardly pick 3-4 songs off 21CB that I like

[casey1251]

I'm flattered, thank you!

I think Nuclear Family is an excellent opener and probably the best song off iUNO!. It is the closest example on the record that actually does

emulate the Dookie sound the band said they were going for. The guitar riff is simple, and makes the song. Lyrically, I'm personally quite surprised not many people have really picked up

on the social commentary element. It isn't spectacularly clear, but I love the line "like a Chinese drama and conspiracy it's the death of the nuclear family" and it could have been developed further.

YES! Thank you so much dudearingo! I understand that the composition is maybe a bit more pertinent to myself than others, what with being a fairly new daddy-o N such, but I really think that song, given the right circumstances, will age so very intensely well! The subtlety of it, in my own bubble like opinion, is just amazing when in contrast to the very aggressive & confrontational nature most folks seem to expect from the BAND. I feel like this could be their version of the Foo Fighters "Aurora" or Nirvanas "Aneurysm", in the sense that it becomes one of those deep album cuts some of the fan base deeply sincerely connects with & enjoys on their own terms! What are your thoughts, eh?

[Neutral Milk Hotel]

I chose Dos, because all I've listened to in the last two days is that album.

[Strayheart1219]

I think I like both of them equally and then I think about DOS and I love that album so much. I really love 21cb too. Idk man that's hard, for me at least. I'd probably choose the trilogy and if asked again i'd choose 21cb. sorry. lol.

[Jude O'Reilly]

I think I like both of them equally and then I think about DOS and I love that album so much. I really love 21cb too. Idk man that's hard, for me at least. I'd probably choose the trilogy and if asked again i'd choose 21cb. sorry. lol.

your avatar terrifies me

[Todd]

Fuck this thread. It's just going to bring out the differences betweem me and my friends.

[Insomniac1984]

I love ¡DOS!

In my humble opinion, this record is the best Green Day have done since Warning. I love that sense of Rock n' roll/Garage rock party atmosphere, it is like a frenetic and solid roller coaster, sometimes faster sometimes slower but mad. I enjoy every song on this album, however I feel that Amy was a bad choice to close this album (That song could be a good B-side). Wow's that's loud could have been an amazing closer track with all of its distortion as the closure or end of the party vibe. I especially enjoy SWTRLF, Lazy Bones, Wild one, Makeout party, Stray Heart, Ashley, Lady Cobra, Nightlife (YES, YOU READ RIGHT!!) and Wow that's loud.

Well, the other AI Post albums are good ones.

* 21st Century Breakdown: Good Record, it is overproduced though. It is better than AI for me, but some songs don't fit on the sound concept of this record (Christian's Inferno, which sounds like a Network's outtake, LOTAG which I consider one of the worst GD singles ever, Peacemaker which I dislike the back vocals on it, Know your enemy which is so plain and repetitive without that rock' n rollish vibe that has live), See the light which is just a filler for me.

* ¡UNO! It is more simple, but I love that "trying to be Old school Green Day". Also, I enjoy a lot Kill the DJ, an excellent experiment and addition to GD's sound catalogue. However, I feel songs like Troublemaker, Angel Blue and Sweet 16 are just fillers.

* ¡TRÉ! It has amazing tracks and fillers, it is a mixed of both. I love Brutal Love, Missing you, Drama Queen, X-Kid, Dirty Rotten Bastards, 99 revolutions and The Forgotten. Walk away has been growing on me. The rest are fillers, some of them are ok.

So: ¡DOS! > ¡UNO! > 21stCB > ¡TRÉ!