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American Idiot
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 26 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 352 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Reprise
Release Date: 21 September 2004
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Alternative, Rock
Summary
Structured as a rock opera complete with 9-minute-plus songs and a somewhat complicated storyline, 'American Idiot' is the Berkeley punk band's first album in over four years.
Also By This Artist: 21st Century Breakdown Shenanigans Warning
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
All Music Guide
In its musical muscle and sweeping, politically charged narrative, it's something of a masterpiece, and one of the few -- if not the only -- records of 2004 to convey what it feels like to live in the strange, bewildering America of the early 2000s.
Read Full Review >Mojo
It's exhilarating stuff, the kind of record that sets new parameters as to what is possible from a punk rock'n'roll band in the 21st century. [Oct 2004, p.106]
Austin Chronicle
American Idiot is one of the most politically volatile albums to come out since the ascension of the Accidental President. It's also the best album of Green Day's 12-year career.
Read Full Review >ShakingThrough.net
An energetic, musically ambitious pop-rock record that employs its expanded vistas in the service of animating punk's well-worn thematic underpinnings.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
As often happens with concept albums, the disc tends to rely on lyrics over music, so some of the songs are forgettable. [24 Sep 2004, p.105]
Billboard
It is exactly what the band needs to boost itself to the next level of pop-punk prowess.
Read Full Review >Paste Magazine
As pretentious a concept as that might seem, Green Day pulls it off brilliantly.
Read Full Review >Dot Music
Not only does it contain Green Day’s finest songs (and choruses) to date... but it also scratches at the surface of political dissatisfaction with nails sharp enough to leave a nasty scar.
Read Full Review >Stylus Magazine
This is the type of album impressionable teenagers fall in love with, crammed with melody and variety and thrill.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
A powerful work, noble in both intent and execution. [Nov 2004, p.110]
New Musical Express (NME)
An onslaught of varied and marvellously good tunes presented in an unexpectedly inventive way. [18 Sep 2004, p.65]
Playlouder
There are several duff tracks, certainly. And, sure, as a whole 'American Idiot' can easily be criticised for its simplistic, occasionally naïve sixth form lyrics, all round pomposity and general adherence to the group's tried and tested formula of punchy three-chord pogo-pop. But it's still a wonderfully entertaining, polemical punk rock record.
Read Full Review >cokemachineglow
If the forced lyrical growth is a little stunted, it’s more than made up for by the band’s newfound sonic ambitions.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
For all its grandiosity, American Idiot keeps its mood and method deliberately, tenaciously, and angrily on point.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
Against all odds, Green Day have found a way to hit their thirties without either betraying their original spirit or falling on their faces.
Read Full Review >Splendid
American Idiot isn't so much meticulously crafted as it is unflinchingly audacious.
Read Full Review >Uncut
Fans will be relieved to know that although it pulls few lyrical punches, slam-dancing is still possible. [Nov 2004, p.119]
The Onion (A.V. Club)
The observations don't always dig as deep as they're meant to, and buzzwords occasionally stand in for insights, but American Idiot finds Green Day both shaking up its formula and applying it in novel and unexpected ways.
Read Full Review >Tiny Mix Tapes
Self-referential, unified, and insanely catchy, American Idiot's positives outweigh its clichéd delivery and ironic medium for corporate America critique.
Read Full Review >Drowned In Sound
An album that doesn’t sell us short on the pop hooks of albums past, but one that also delivers a healthy dose of politics to the mix without sounding like a six-legged cliché-riddled embarrassment.
Read Full Review >Blender
Concept or not, American Idiot is still decent fodder for a mosh pit, a luagh and a sob session. [Nov 2004, p.136]
The Guardian
American Idiot is a mess - but a vivid, splashy, even courageous mess.
Read Full Review >Village Voice (Consumer Guide)
There's no economics, no race, hardly any compassion. Joe name-checks America as if his hometown of Berkeley was in the middle of it, then name-checks Jesus as if he's never met anyone who's attended church. And to lend his maunderings rock grandeur, he ties them together with devices that sunk under their own weight back when the Who invented them.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 352 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Andrew C. gave it a10:
"American Idiot" is one of the leading rock operas of our time. The epic starts off with the title track. One of the album's highlights is "Jesus of Suburbia", which is, like every song, a serious one, telling about the economy, although the most politics-headed song is the song that follows, "Holiday", which will have people singing along as the classic blasts through the speakers, with strong lines. Billie Joe Armstrong says the topic sentence in just one line, "I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies". The guitar feedback transitions into "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", a song we all knew from the radio. Songs 5-10 are good, but not the strong points. 11 is "Wake Me Up When September Ends" confused as a song for 9/11, although it was to honor his father. Another nine minute epic follows after "Jesus of Suburbia", which was song 2, called "Homecoming". The last song is "Whatsername", originally to be released as a single, although Green Day thought the video was terrible. Overall, "American Idiot" is a classic, and hopefully, it will also be re-mastered.
Andrea P gave it an8:
A well done record, some songs are awesome but one or two aren't so good. Sure one of the best album by Green Day.
Wyatt M. gave it a10:
I think green day put great meaning's for there song's in American idiot.
Barbara S gave it a10:
They grew up. As musicians and people. That's it.
Kevin L. gave it an8:
Of course, American Idiot pales in comparison to the likes of Dookie or Insomniac but it's far from crap. In fact, it's an excellent album. I don't think Green Day wanna live in the shadow of Dookie forever so I welcome their change.
Sid S gave it a7:
When you are an old Green Day fan and are just willing them to bring out another 'Dookie', a bit disappointing.
Jack S gave it a10:
All of the people below will regret the zero's you have given this album when, in twenty years time, it becomes one of the most influential albums in rock history.
