With Basket Case and Warning still on rotation on Kerrang! TV years after they were released, Green Day are serious contenders for the title of biggest rock band ever. Green Day, along with blink-182 are the founders of modern punk rock, and you would be hard pressed to find a rock band now who don't quote them as an inspiration. They got a lot of stick for American Idiot. People said they'd sold out, that they'd betrayed their fans. I didn't think so. I thought that American Idiot was a great album. But, after hearing it day in, day out for absolutely ages, I just got bored of it. 21st Century Breakdown extends more from American Idiot than Green Day's earlier albums, but they're experimenting more with their sound than they have previously. Peacemaker, for example, sounds almost latino, and Last Night on Earth could be a Wings song, if Paul McCartney had taken singing lessons from Johnny Rotten. There are another few out-of-character songs on the album, which makes it varied enough to sustain your interest the whole way through. I don't care much for the whole "this is not an album, this is a story" attitude, especially as Billie-Joe seems to be so far up his own arse he doesn't know which way up is. The band have, however, managed to put a very good eighth album. Now we just need to wait and see if it gets as much air time as the previous on.

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