Day 0961 - American Idiot

Green Day "American Idiot" (2004) - got it

The story goes that Green Day had recorded an album which was to continue the expansion of their musical palette that had been going on in their previous album "Warning".  The recordings were stolen and the band decided started from scratch.   Realistically they had backups and could have recreated the music.  It was more likely it just wasn't quite up to scratch, but it makes a for better story to say the theft led to reinvention.

The band took the opportunity to try something different; a punk-rock opera.   There does seem to be a lyrical connection, and the album's two medley pieces "Jesus of Surburbia" and "Homecoming" feed into that conceit.   I've never really paid too much attention to that side of things but the album does have a certain cohesion to it, even as it mashes punk rock (the title track and "Saint Jimmy") with an almost 1950s sound on the verses of "Give Me Novocaine" and stadium-sized sound on songs like "We are the Waiting" or ballad "Wake Me When September Ends".

The song that seized me pretty early on was "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"  with it's tremolo-drenched alt-rock balladry. I hate the radio would often play a version where they shave off the instrumental outro, as though it was unworthy because it didn't have a human voice on it (probably just considered too long for the radio) it's one of my favourite parts of the song.   

The album was also seemingly one of the few mainstream releases making any effort to criticise the US invasion of Iraq (the sequel).  Definitely throwing a title like "American Idiot" at a highly patriotic nation like the US was a reasonably punk-rock thing to do.

American Idiot ended up being a shot in the arm for Green Day, setting their direction for the next few years, leading to a live album, a documentary, and even a stage musical. 

Day 0925 - Gold

Ryan Adams "Gold" (2001)

I have to admit that my earlier prejudice against Adams (as per my write-up for "Heartbreaker", day 902) was definitely unfounded.   This is another good album, this time in an alt-country vibe with more than a few nods to the rootsy folky rock of The Band.

Adams had wanted to make it a double album but his record company cut the last few songs and offered them up as a bonus disc on some versions of the album.   They would later refuse to release albums Adams had recorded and tore 3-4 potential albums to pieces in order to put together the next album they released... so much for artistic freedom.

"Gold" is at least a collection of songs that Adams wanted to present together.   It opens with the peppy "New York, New York" which got a lot of airplay after the September 11 attacks (which occurred just a few days after Adams filmed his music video in front of the NY skyline).   "Answering Bell" sounded familiar to me, and "When the Stars go Blue" is just lovely.   

 

The last track "Goodnight, Hollywood Boulevard" seems an appropriate closer with its piano and strings putting forward an 'end of night' feel.