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Armstrong in particular embraced the challenge. As a kid, he sang show tunes at convalescent homes and veterans' hospitals, and he used the operatic concept as a chance to "figure out if I could take something like If My Friends Could See Me Now or Satin Doll and make it punk rock. I used everything I've ever learned or liked in music," he says. It shows. A significant part of American Idiot's charm is that for an album that bemoans the state of the union, it is irresistibly buoyant. Listen closely, and you will hear a story about Jesus of Suburbia, his dangerous friend St. Jimmy and a heroic girl called Whatshername, who are struggling to express their individuality in a mass-media culture. Listen less closely, and you will still nod your head a lot and remember most of the melodies, which veer from surf rock to Motown to Broadway to thrash, usually within the same mad dash of a song.
But the lyrics are the reason American Idiot is the most fully realized piece of Pop art to emerge from the 2004 political campaigns. Armstrong is a punk-rock millionaire from Northern California, and his party affiliation isn't tough to guess. But while most would-be artistic commentators droned on about candidates and policies, Armstrong dramatized his protest. A verse like
I'm the son of rage and love
The Jesus of Suburbia ...
No one ever died for my sins in hell
As far as I can tell
At least the ones I got away with
And there's nothing wrong with me
This is how I'm supposed to be
In a land of make believe
That don't believe in me
is epic, broad and slightly comic--Brechtian, in the best sense of the word. And Armstrong's adenoidal whine, backed up by the rhythm section's precise fury, keeps the concept from ever becoming pretentious--or Brechtian in the worst sense.
The band members still seem shocked that they have succeeded in shifting their context from lucky punks to relevant, opus-making adults. Just contemplating the upcoming Grammys stuns them into silence. Eventually Armstrong admits, "I never thought I'd say this, but I'd really like to win Album of the Year. It would be meaningful to me, and without tooting my own horn, I kind of think we might even deserve it." He kind of might even be right. ???