CD: Green Day, American Idiot (original) (raw)

One of the presidential election campaign's stranger sights to date has been that of John Kerry sharing a podium with Blink-182's Tom DeLonge, the man behind such albums as Enema of the State. Californian punk-pop, usually concerned with cars and girls, has abruptly reconnected with punk's tradition of social outrage. Even so, it's surprising to hear Green Day, the trio whose pogoing skate-pop inadvertently invented Busted, warning us of the dangers of "one nation controlled by the media". Like, dude, what's up?

If Joe Strummer's spirit stalks American Idiot, so too does Pete Townshend's. This is a fully-fledged rock opera - which is almost as chilling a concept as a second Bush term, although Green Day's muscular grasp of pop verities steers them safely away from conceptual meltdown. The album's opposing poles are its two, nine-minute, five-part song suites: Jesus of Suburbia boldly traverses snotty punk, arena rock and the Beach Boys, while Homecoming sounds like the finale of a calamitous Broadway musical. Between the two, American Idiot is a mess - but a vivid, splashy, even courageous mess.