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.

I Miss Back When

(title from Tim McGraw - Back When - Live Like You Were Dying)

You know how everyone has one of those "you know you're getting old when" sayings?

I knew I was getting old when I could no longer name any one music genre as my favorite.

I maintain that if it doesn't have any solid guitar work, I'm not really interested, but I've expanded my taste from metal, punk, and rock & roll to country (oh, do I love country), bluegrass, jam bands, and all those moldy golden oldies our parents love to sing horribly in public to embarrass us. 

But then, there are a few artists whose work I get giddy over purely for the thump. I have a folder called "GOTS A BEAT" for them. I think it's right above "HIPPIE TUNES" in the tree. Really.

I think maybe it's the artists that grow up, too. Green Day, for example. I love the first few albums, but I'm more partial to the newer, older Green Day- the stuff after Dookie. I dunno, to me they just seem more orchestrated as the albums span- tighter, more focused- I'm a huge fan of American Idiot and I think that's the best example of their experience as a trio. 

And then you get into artists like Blink-182- I mean, Tom DeLonge? Holy cow, is that man a musical genius. You've got older Blink stuff that's loopy, fun, loud, and childish, but still pretty tight- I'll cite "Voyeur" and "A New Hope" from Dude Ranch, and you go search those lyrics- they're stupid, funny, immature, and yet the melodies and harmonies are pretty decent for a trio of punk rockers. But then you've got the stuff from their last album before the hiatus- the self-title- it totally blew me away, and even 5 years later, it still does. It's still on my iPod, it never came off, it never will. 

But it's DeLonge's most recent public project- Angels & Airwaves- that makes my heart do loop-the-loops. There's a postsecret.com postcard that says, "Angels & Airwaves makes me believe in love again," and I think that about summed up my feelings to a T. The "wall of sound" and synth-heavy background doesn't follow the lyrical melody, but complements it perfectly. DeLonge is clearly still influenced by the Cure (Robert Smith made an appearance on the self-title to sing lead vox for "All of This"), but the infusion of the 1980s-style synth and electronic drum does not feel outdated in either album. And that's what I love- this stuff is timeless, I can listen to it on my worst of days, and maybe two tracks later, all that ticked me off has floated away. That's important to me- that's what music should do.