• ROCK

GREEN DAY

21st Century Breakdown

Reprise

****

Urgent and visceral, with a raging but earnest punk heartbeat, Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown is a dizzying emotional and musical barrage.

The punk trio's follow-up to 2004's bestselling American Idiot may not exactly be a rock opera, but it definitely has grand scope and ambition. And anger, and romance, and despair, and chaos, and an irresistible urge to take the power structure by the throat and shake it till it chokes -- or coughs up some kind of sense.

The new president's mantras may be hope and change, and the national mood may be very different than during the divided era of Idiot, but Green Day is still far from convinced life will be OK. They're ''desperate, but not hopeless'' as Billie Joe Armstrong sings in Murder City, inspired by riots following a police shooting in the group's hometown of Oakland, because, ``We've come so far, we've been so wasted.''

Breakdown's 19 songs range through tuneful, stripped-down power chord punk, operatic rock a la The Who, Beatles-like melodies, and a host of unexpected touches (Middle Eastern sounding harmonic echoes, Tin Pan Alley piano), divided into three ''acts'' -- Heroes and Cons, Charlatans and Saints, Horseshoes and Handgrenades. Two emblematic characters, Gloria, Last of the American Girls, and the self-destructive Christian, sometimes connect, but mostly search for answers and redemption in an overwhelming, often terrible world.

The album has a thematic sweep that could be quite a challenge in a multitasking age, exhilarating as well as exhausting. And inspiring, too, that any group could try to get so much from pop music -- which may be the most hopeful thing about Green Day's vision of the 21st century.

-- JORDAN LEVIN

jlevin@MiamiHerald.com

METHOD MAN AND REDMAN

Blackout! 2

Def Jam

***

Method Man and Redman were on top of the world in the late '90s and early 2000s on the heels of their first duet album, Blackout! and the feature film How High. But with the failure of their sitcom Method & Red and a string of unmemorable solo work, their stock has been at its lowest as of late.

Enter Blackout! 2. The duo is rejuvenated, and with production help from some of hip-hop's best beatmakers, the disc is a refreshing throwback to the mid-'90s.

A-Yo is a summer ode to cruising with Meth and Red indulging in their favorite hobby (smoking weed) backed by bluesy guitars and funky horns courtesy of producer Pete Rock and a smooth chorus sung by Toronto rapper Saukrates.

Meth and Red's respective crews are well-represented on Blackout! 2. Four Minutes to Lock Down features Method Man's brethren Raekwon and Ghostface Killah and sounds like a vintage Wu-Tang Clan record. Meanwhile Redman's Def Squad cohorts Erick Sermon and Keith Murray assist on Dangerous Mcees and Errybody Scream, respectively.

The album's highlight, though, is City Lights. The Southern-flavored track pairs Meth and Red with Texas duo U.G.K. On the song, Bun B vividly boasts about his car while his deceased partner-in-rap, Pimp C, is represented in spirit on the chorus via vocal sample.

Blackout! 2 is limited in scope by subject matter. Method Man and Redman rarely rap about anything besides partying, smoking and having fun. But older hip-hop fans yearning for something more than the usual bleeps-and-bloops of most top 40 hip-hop will be very pleased.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@