Scott Kara: Breaking down Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown

Oakland punk legends Green Day's new album <i>21st Century Breakdown</i> is out on May 15. Photo / Supplied by Warner Music

Green Day are about to deliver 21st Century Breakdown, their magnum opus follow-up to their classic American Idiot. And from Saturday you can hear it before its official release on May 15.

We'll be will be streaming three songs a day for six days. Just go to nzherald.co.nz/go/greenday from Saturday to hear the album.

In the meantime here's a track-by-track guide ...

For three guys who seemed destined to play daft punk rock forever, 2004's ambitious concept album American Idiot was both a brave and suprising step. While there are no nine-minute, multi-part opuses, 21st Century Breakdown makes that last record sound like a trial run. It is a brilliantly conceived 18-song, three-act epic about the lives, loves and adventures of Christian and Gloria, two young punk rock lovers on the loose in America.

SONG OF THE CENTURY

With the crackle of an old record as the backdrop and singer Billie Joe Armstrong sounding like a cross between an old radio broadcaster and poet Dylan Thomas, he sums up the mood of the album with the lines: "Of panic and promise and prosperity ... Sing us a song for me".

Act I: Heroes and Cons

21st Century Breakdown
It's fitting the title track also has three parts to it, starting with back-bending, melodic rock; then into a galloping, guitar-wielding Celtic punk stomp; before giving way to a finale of soaring Brian May-inspired musical pomp. And it's thrilling. The song's timeline starts with Armstrong's birth, his coming of age ("My generation is zero, I never made it as a working class hero.) and through to "the class of "13", the year his oldest son will graduate from high school, a recurring thread throughout the album.

Know Your Enemy
It's the first single but along with The Static Age is the least memorable song on the album. It's straightforward pop punk and wouldn't sound out of place on 1994's Dookie.

Viva la Gloria!
This song, about the album's troubled but resolute and politically savvy heroine, begins with a poignant piece of piano and some distant strings before launching into a staunch, jackhammer attack of melodic punk. And no, unlike Coldplay there is no secondary title to the song. Instead, Green Day write a companion piece to go with it (see Act II).

Before the Lobotomy
Also starts restrained, this time with acoustic guitar and Armstrong's beautifully tender line, "I was only dreaming of another place and time where my family's from". It then twists and turns between sweetness and fiery bitterness.

Christian's Inferno
The distorted opening vocal and bludgeoning beats hark back to the "President Gasman" part of American Idiot's Holiday and makes a menacing accompaniment to the album's most unhinged and maniacal song.The line "I am the atom bomb, I am the chosen one" sums up the temperamental personality of young punk Christian.

Last Night on Earth
A lilting piano-driven love song and one of a handful of good old-fashioned, cigarette-lighter anthems on offer here. Armstrong's tenderness, both in voice and sentiment, comes through again with "My beating heart belongs to you, I walked for miles 'til I found you".

Act II: Charlatans and Saints

East Jesus Nowhere
The second stanza kicks off with this mosh pit-pumping, fist-raising anthem about the hypocrisy of religion. It's easy to picture fans bouncing and singing along to the line: "Say a pray for the family, drop a coin for humanity".

Peacemaker
With its snappy acoustic strum, it's like You're The One That I Want from Grease meets a Mariachi band. This toe-tapping, head-nodder is one of 21st Century Breakdown's standouts and like nothing Green Day have ever done before.

Last of the American Girls
Punk rock meets Bruce Springsteen in this song written for Armstrong's wife, Adrienne. She's some girl if the song is to be believed: she rides a bike, goes on hunger strikes, still plays vinyl records and is generally pretty hardcore.

Murder City
Another fast-chugging rager with wailing classic rock tangents and Pixies-like squalls. Armstrong and co might sound a little disillusioned with lines like "I feel so useless in the murder city" but the sheer noise of the song signals they're not down and out.

Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl)
A dulcet, almost harpsichord-like piano opens this music box-style tune before a sinister stomp kicks in on a song that tells the story of a "dirty liar, you're just a junkie preaching to the choir".

Restless Heart Syndrome
Act II closes out with a stripped-back piano and acoustic guitar track about addiction to prescription drugs ("So what ails you is what impales you, you are your own worst enemy") that escalates into a distorted wall of noise to end. Curtains please, ready for the finale.

Act III: Horseshoes and Handgrenades

Horseshoes and Handgrenades
The riff, whether intentional or not, is nicely ripped off from American all-girl grunge band L7's heaving Pretend We're Dead. Along with Christian's Inferno, the song is a slaughter and summed up best by Armstrong's brutal catch-cry, "I'm not f****** around".

The Static Age
Could this song about technology and information overload be the trio, who are all in their late 30s, finally showing their age? Not likely, if the sing-song and bounce of the chorus is anything to go by.

21 Guns
The Boulevard of Broken Dreams of the album, with Armstrong's falsetto on the chorus line "One, 21 guns, throw up your arms into the sky ... you and I," the single most beautiful moment of the album.

American Eulogy: I. Mass Hysteria II. Modern World

These two tracks morph together with the first part a straightforward punk rock slammer before a clean, fast guitar strum winds us up and slings us into the staunch, Clash-like rumble of Modern World.

See the Light
A reflective and quiet start reveals an optimistic mood ("I just want to see the light. I need to know what's worth the fight.") and then bang, it cracks into big, stadium punk grooves confirming that yes, Green Day are gunning for Coldplay and U2 status.