American Idiot by Green Day: Punk Rock. Everything you have heard about this album is true. It is bloated and overblown. They were ditching punk and becoming arena rock. However they needed to. Green Day changed the rulebook for punk rock with this album. Essentially a rewrite of the unreleased album ‘Hearts and Hand Grenades’ which was lost/stolen. They had been close to breaking up and this was their last ditch effort. It worked. The songs are catchy, they are heavy and they also appear to have some sort of message. It’s a great comeback album. End of. TWH: American Idiot; St. Jimmy; Letterbomb.

Grade: A