Continuing the music scene ...

Hearing "concept album" usually makes me run. Worse, Green Day isn't the band you'd expect to even try a concept, even one as loosely organized as "American Idiot." Thematically a cycle of interconnected songs tracing the modern disaffected youth oddly trying to organize behind the 'punk' ethos, somehow the album just works.

On their best day, Green Day is a pop-punk answer to The Clash. On their worst, they exude a label-induced sheen that turns off both the pop radio ear candy searchers and the punks they try to be. As Green Day has grown up, they've also grown. The production is surprisingly clean; it's barely a punk album, whatever that term means.

This is near sacrilege to even consider, let alone write, but the album is a modern day "London Calling." It's not that good and Green Day is no Clash, but the comparison holds. Where London was an defining moment in punk's British roots, Idiot becomes a similar rite-of-passage for American punk music. As more so-called punks move to the emo side or toss it all in for full-on pop excesses like overdubs and dates with Hillary Duff, Idiot is perhaps the first complete album of the movement. That done, the movement can now move on.

"American Idiot" is the song you've likely heard, a nice political call and the song that's actually the least threatening. It's punky, quick, and sharp, but the rest of the album moves quickly from the expected tack. "Jesus of Suburbia" is a near ten minute cycle that stands with the best songs of the last few years. Thoughtful but never pandering, it's the masterpiece of the album. The changing song structure actually recalls the Beatles, though the sound will not be mistaken for them.

Most of the album continues along the cycle, returning to themes both lyrically and musically, only shifting for an acoustic aside called "Wake Me Up When September Ends." The song will remind enough of Green Day's overplayed "Good Riddance" to get radio airplay. The album closes with another long cycle of tunes called "Homecoming" and a throw-in called "Whatsername", putting a decidedly nihilistic conclusion on the album.

"American Idiot" is a great album, one that's surprisingly of a piece and that has more to say inside of three chords than most. I'll wager that few thought that Green Day would be extant a decade after "Dookie", let alone putting out work that stands with the best of the genre. Perhaps it's no "London Calling", but few are. It stands with other genre-challenging albums like Extreme's "Pornografitti", Garth Brooks' "In Pieces," and Outkast's "Stankonia", questioning where not just the band is headed, but the entire movement. It's either pinnacle or turned-corner, but it's well worth a close listen.