By this time in the band’s career, they had released multiple releases that reached a giant audience. From “Dookie” to “Warning,” Green Day kept the same themes in line and propelled themselves continually in the world of Punk Pop. Even now when you think about it “American Idiot” was a huge gamble. Many bands conceive of giant pieces of music under a singular banner or concept, but for a band that had nothing left to really prove, they took on the task to make an epic album that harkened back to the conceptual masterpieces in the vain of the Who, Pink Floyd, and others.

In this exercise, they not only succeeded with an album that has all the hooks you’d expect from this band, but they made an album that is easily their best known record to date. Today I talk about what I consider an overlooked masterpiece of popular music, “American Idiot” by Green Day.

Upon starting the album, you quickly find yourself back in Green Day world. The immediate guitar, bass and drums don’t even build up. It simply starts. Say what you will about the path this band has taken at times, but they know what to do in terms of popular rock music. The lead single and title track, “Ameircan Idiot,” is one of the catchiest songs on the album, and is a perfect opening that compliments the rest of the record. The band was obviously upset about the state of the world and the current president (Bush references are scattered throughout), but this album proves that while the band had matured in terms of lyrical content and themes, they still were able to be pull you in and remind you where they came from.

This is also the album where they somehow managed to pull off two nine minute songs. The first, “Jesus of Subarbia” finds us at the second song. You get the impression from a listening stand point that the protagonist of the album is a jaded teen who, like many humans his age, are just trying to navigate the world through having mindless fun but also working out how to exist in this often cruel world. This is probably the closest Green Day will ever get to the always evolving paces you hear in Tool songs, but that’s totally ok. They aren’t the same type of band at all, but this song weaves and goes in multiple different directions before ending. The other long ass song, “ Homecoming,” finds us at almost the same part of the last half of the album. Coming right before the closing number, it explores similar themes, but by that point the story has taken a turn for the worse, and you find the narrator and main character in a rough place.

By this point in the band’s career, they had many, many radio hits. The list is pretty impressive if you look at. Here though, the manage to add multiple songs to that list. The first finds us in the form of “Holiday.” This is probably one of the top 5 songs on the record, and it’s quite possibly the closest in style to the bands earlier works, The story pauses a little bit here, but you still get the meaning behind it. Armstrong is chanting in the way that great leaders do, and he’s imploring everyone to wake up and join the cause that will benefit the whole world. It’s highly political song, and Green Day nail it out of the park. The song is followed by “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” a song that is as melodramatic as the title suggests. I’ve always thought it worked so well because it’s from the point of view of a teenager struggling. A teenager would think in the way that the world is hopeless and nothing matters. The drums at the end of the track are spot on also. They add a much-needed epicness to the vulnerability prevalent throughout the song.

It’s at this point in the story where the main character ventures out in search of a place where he can find himself and figure out what works for him. Soon enough he meets the title character from the song “St. Jimmy.” Jimmy always struck me as a wild character who brings the best out of the people around him. The song is as immediate and chaotic as the description of the character himself. This is probably the song closest to early recordings from the band, although they’re much better musicians by this point in their career. Multiple other characters are presented in the second half of the album. “She’s A Rebel,” is pretty cute and dry, and you get what the person is about pretty much right away. She relates to the character in terms of freedom. She’s able to show him more of the world he wants to be in, and quickly they find themselves exploring the world together.

The tenth track of the album “Letterbomb,” begins with a lovely but wounded sounding voice ( band? courtesy of the always great Kathleen Hanna) coming through a pair of scratchy old headphones. From then the song takes a turn and the destruction is clear. War in a personal way is taking place. It’s been suggested that “Jesus of Subarbia” and “St. Jimmy” are the same person. Think of it in terms of “Fight Club.” The main character in this album is the Edward Norton narrator, and Jimmy is the Brad Pitt. This is the song where they’re clearly at odds, and this are coming to a head. Jimmy has been good for the main character, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

The next track, probably the best song on the whole album, is “Wake me up When September Ends.” This song is the album piece that works best in a non linear way. It gives to the story immensely, but it’s also able to easily stand on its own legs. It’s an incredibly powerful song, and for personal reasons it’s one of my favorite of the bands songs. The guitars are able to bring much-needed good vibes to the unfortunate events occurring through the vocals and lyrics. This is the point in the story where you get the impression that the main character knows that his body is the battle ground among two very different styles of life. Jesus and Jimmy are fighting for control of his soul, and he knows it. Jimmy has to go.

As the closing of the album reaches us, “Jesus of Suburbia” pulls the exact thing that the Norton character from “Fight Club” does. He takes the “life” of the entity slowly building in his subconscious. He kills “Jimmy.” This gives him the freedom to fully realize his potential, but in the process he loses something precious.

It’s my theory that the female character we’re introduced to in “Extraordinary Girl” is the same person that’s discussed in the final track “Whatsername.” The song itself is a proper conclusion musically to this album, but it ends in sadness. The now centered and steady main character is doing much better but important pieces are missing. Th lyrics are excellent at presenting you with the facts surrounding the story and explaining what happened after the departure of Jimmy. The lyrics “I made a point to burn all of the photographs” doesn’t meant that literally. “When Jimmy was destroyed, his parting gift to the main character was to eliminate all of the memories of the amazing, or “Extraordinary Girl” we meet earlier in the story. He deprives “Jesus of Suburbia” of the person he loves most. The girl has gone somewhere not close to the area the story is now in, and without those images and thoughts he has no hope of tracking his potential soul mate down.

That’s the magic in this album. Green Day as a band manage to create not only their best and most innovative album, but also an album that touched millions of people with their powerful themes of struggling and powerlessness. This album was the one that properly introduced a whole new generation to the capabilities of this often dismissed group, but reminded people from an older age demographic that guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool were still capable of kicking complete ass when they put their minds into a powerful, singular story line.

Next, I’ll be sharing how I went from hating an album by a bunch of animated creatures who loved changing the style on every song and who had a penchant for singing about the director of “Million Dollar Baby.” Thanks for reading.