Listened to it for the first time this morning and am both shocked and awed. It's a very good album and a real change in style for Green Day, it's like they were holding back on Warning and American Idiot is the result of them truly letting go. They've been through a lot while making American Idiot but the result is worth it.
The sound of the album is actually quite sombre I feel, this isn't the high speed, brash sound you may be used to from Green Day but it works really well. There's also a lot of stuff that's qiute surprising, touches to songs you may not expect from a band who usually don't need much more than a handful of chords for a song.
American Idiot does sound out of place, but it's the first song and I kind of view it like an opening credits theme. I was thinking of calling it an "overture" but that'd be a complete misuse of the word so I'm stuck with the opening credits analogy. Feel free to improve on that for me
I admit, it's only my first listen but that first listen was the best hour of my life for a while, certainly the best listen I've had in ages. I could listen to it again after lunch but tbh, I think I'll wait 'til I get home, I kind of want some time just listening to the album and not dealing with work stuff at the same time.
If you're unsure about whether to take a chance on the album, I'd say do it (even if that means testing the waters beforehand...).
