New Green Day hits stores today!

But I got it last night. I shall not reveal my sources. Call it an industry insider thing.

Today's the first I've heard the whole thing, and I only heard half of "Know Your Enemy" once on the radio, a couple days ago, actually.

But I'll tell you, barely a quarter way through 21st Century Breakdown, I already know it will join the list of forever-on-my-iPod-albums. 

I'm writing this during my first spin, so I don't have a whole lot to say about the individual tracks yet, but I can tell you that "Before the Lobotomy" and "Last Night on Earth" display a touch of Billie Joe Armstrong's notorious soft side, but in a much cooler way than lite-radio classics "Wake Me Up When September Ends" and "Good Riddance."

The only negative thing I can say about this album is that I'm not really sure I like the whole "rock opera," or one story broken into 18 similarly-veined tracks for the 2nd album in a row (especially after it's been so long in between releases- five years, was it?). I loved, and still really enjoy, listening to American Idiot, but Breakdown :almost: feels like we're re-living it.

And of course, there will be people who claim that Green Day's more evolved sound is crap and that they should have stuck to their formula from the early days (you'll hear similar arguments about Blink-182, Unwritten Law, the Offspring, Bad Religion, etc.). But see, people grow, get older, change their tastes, and acquire new influences. I've got to hand it to them, I think Green Day's sound has aged quite handsomely over the years.

If you like these guys at all, you should invest in the new album. For real. I don't think you'll be disappointed.