Green Day announce 21st Century Breakdown details

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Green Day aim big on 'Breakdown'
Green Day aim big on 'Breakdown'

Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown, the band's highly anticipated follow-up to their 2004 Grammy-winning smash American Idiot, will be released worldwide on Friday, 15 May.

The album's first single Know Your Enemy will be issued in April.

Produced by Butch Vig (known for his work with Nirvana and The Smashing Pumpkins, as well as his own band Garbage), 21st Century Breakdown promises to be a grand statement along the lines of American Idiot.

Three sides to this 'Breakdown'

"[The new album is] even more ambitious than American Idiot. [It's] a record of die-hard punk ideals...tightly scripted" Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong

The album, while not described as a 'rock opera,' is divided into three parts: Heroes And Cons, Charlatans And Saints and Horseshoes And Handgrenades, and follows a young couple, Christian and Gloria, through the "mess and promise of the century so far."

Other song titles include 21 Guns, East Jesus Nowhere, Before The Lobotomy and Restless Heart Syndrome.

Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong recently said that the new album was "even more ambitious than American Idiot," calling it "a record of die-hard punk ideals...tightly scripted, continually ascending classic-rock excitement."

We simply cannot wait for this one.

Joe Bosso
Joe Bosso

Joe is a freelance journalist who has, over the past few decades, interviewed hundreds of guitarists for Guitar World, Guitar Player, MusicRadar and Classic Rock. He is also a former editor of Guitar World, contributing writer for Guitar Aficionado and VP of A&R for Island Records. He’s an enthusiastic guitarist, but he’s nowhere near the likes of the people he interviews. Surprisingly, his skills are more suited to the drums. If you need a drummer for your Beatles tribute band, look him up.