Click here for Altrok 90.5 HD2
Get the app for your iPhone and iPod Touch.
Now bringing Modern Rock to the Jersey Shore, at 90.5 HD2



 

There's more ads down here, and they help support us so, y'know, check 'em out...

Monday, June 01, 2009

The Greatest Album Ever? Maybe...

Last time in this column I proclaimed Green Day the Greatest American Band Ever. I was right of course, but even I didn't know how right I was. Since that time I have purchased and listened to the entire new album, 21st Century Breakdown.

This may be The Greatest Album Ever. Maybe. The power, the sadness, the honesty, and the anger expressed in the songs on this album has greatly affected me in a way that only a few albums have done over many years. It's that good.

Chills down my spine. Hair standing on my arms. And yes, tears. And that's just the first track. Game over.

This is not an album to skip through to your favorite track, you'll miss so much of the heart and soul of this CD. Yes, there are a few standout singles that will blow you away, but to ignore the other 15 tracks is to do a great disservice to Green Day, and if you truly love and admire what they've done in the past, you will honor them by BUYING THE WHOLE ALBUM AND LISTENING ALL THE WAY THROUGH. Honor the artist.

It's OK if you don't fully get it the first time through. I didn't, but the second time through I was transformed.

Green Day has produced a masterpiece. Plain and simple. Every track works, every track fits and every track MEANS SOMETHING. There is no filler. Don't you dare skip ahead.

In this day and age of iTunes and pure singles, few bands even bother thinking about the album format, as a whole piece of art whose sum is far greater than the individual tracks. Most bands simply don't have the talent to do that. That's OK, we love singles, but to be able to produce an album like this, to be willing to create something of this magnitude is to be in a class of artist so beyond the ordinary. With this level of integrity and craftsmanship, Billy Joe and company should be running the U.S. auto industry. We'd all be driving Chevy's, I assure you.

Green Day is an established band. They don't need to try to make a whole album. Just a few singles would be good enough. But they produced this.

21st Century Breakdown reminds us of why we listen to music. Why great music, inspiring music, thrilling music matters to our lives. It makes us feel so wonderfully human.

It is a tragedy that most of this album will never be heard on the radio. And the fact that it can't legally be played in it's entirety is unfortunate.

But you can buy it. And you can listen to it all the way through. Do not buy the singles from iTunes. Spend a few more dollars and get the whole album. Better yet, get the physical recording complete with the artwork from amazon.com.

There isn't much more I can say. This CD, created by America's Greatest Band Ever, born from the pain and anger of witnessing a great nation squander it's wealth,it's reputation and it's future in just a few years, makes that decline almost worth it.

At least we'll have this CD to listen to when the lights go out.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home

 
Please Look At Our Advertisers (Or The Website Gets It)
Congratulations, you've found the hidden text.
 
Welcome to Altrok.com, also available at AltrokRadio.com and AltrockRadio.com. Here's where the remaining listeners of several fine radio stations have retreated, regrouped, and built a replacement strong enough to stand on its own. It builds on the independent legacy of New Jersey's FM106.3, New York's WPIX and WLIR, Oklahoma's 105.3 The Spy, the pre-buyout mindset of KROQ, WBCN and WHFS and of every other alternative station that was destroyed at a moment's notice - not because they weren't making money, but because there was bigger money to be found elsewhere.
 
We've stood by as truly independent alternative rock radio died. Sure, something called "alternative" took its place, but we know for sure that anything that "tests well" with soccer moms just ain't alternative. (Even if some of us happen to be soccer moms.) So we've taken matters into our own hands.
 
This really is independent alternative rock radio, visible here at Altrok.com and audible at our web radio station. It has the classic music that fired our passions back in the day - or that we maybe only heard about from our elders - but it's mostly made of the new music that does precisely the same for us now. We're paying attention to scenes all over the world, watching the energy build, and waiting to see what it creates. Wherever it happens, we'll make sure you can hear about it here. We've been slowly building all this since 2001, and now that you've noticed us, we're glad you're here.
 
Of course, it's only here because you want it to be here, and it can only stay if you help it along - especially by checking out our advertisers (they support us) and by listening (the more that listen, the more visible we are.) Please use the "feedback" link above to let us know whether it works for you, and what you want it to be as the future unfolds. (And if you need help hearing it, let us know that, too.)