Jon Pareles on Green Day

"'American Idiot' left Green Day determined to top itself — and with '21st Century Breakdown,' the band has done just that. The music is more expansive in every way, encompassing more styles and arriving in a newly spacious, three-dimensional production. At a time when younger punk-pop bands are singing about girl trouble and professional envy, Green Day has dared to offer something far denser and more demanding: a whirlwind of thoughts about activism, redemption and destruction. The rage and sorrows of 'American Idiot' are pushed even further in '21st Century Breakdown,' in songs where idealism and the urge to annihilate are constantly grappling, never far apart. It’s not an agitprop, sloganeering album. '21st Century Breakdown' poses more questions than answers, from its supercharged first single, 'Know Your Enemy,' which asks, 'Do you know your enemy?' to its surging finale, 'See the Light,' which finds no triumph or resolution. 'I just want to see the light,' Billie Joe Armstrong — Green Day’s singer, guitarist and main lyricist — insists over ringing power chords. 'I need to know what’s worth the fight'" ("The Morning After 'American Idiot,'" New York Times, 5/3/09).