Warning illustrated their growing musical acumen quite impressively, but here, the music isn't only tougher, it's fluid and, better still, it fuels the anger, disillusionment, heartbreak, frustration, and scathing wit at the core of American Idiot. And one of the truly startling things about American Idiot is how the increased musicality of the band is matched by Armstrong's incisive, cutting lyrics, which effectively convey the paranoia and fear of living in American in days after 9/11, but also veer into moving, intimate small-scale character sketches. There's a lot to absorb here, and cynics might dismiss it after one listen as a bit of a mess when it's really a rich, multi-faceted work, one that is bracing upon the first spin and grows in stature and becomes more addictive with each repeated play. Like all great concept albums, American Idiot works on several different levels. It can be taken as a collection of great songs — songs that are as visceral or as poignant as Green Day at their best, songs that resonate outside of the larger canvas of the story, as the fiery anti-Dubya title anthem proves — but these songs have a different, more lasting impact when taken as a whole. While its breakneck, freewheeling musicality has many inspirations, there really aren't many records like American Idiot (bizarrely enough, the Fiery Furnaces' Blueberry Boat is one of the closest, at least on a sonic level, largely because both groups draw deeply from the kaleidoscopic "A Quick One"). 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. - AMG

1. American Idiot
2. Jesus Of Suburbia
3. City Of The Damned
4. I Don't Care
5. Dearly Beloved
6. Tales Of Another Broken Home
7. Holiday
8. Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
9. Are We The Waiting
10. St. Jimmy
11. Give Me Novacaine
12. She's A Rebel
13. Extraordinary Girl
14. Letterbomb
15. Wake Me Up When September Ends
16. Homecoming
17. The Death Of St. Jimmy
18. East 12th St.
19. Nobody Likes You
20. Rock And Roll Girlfriend
21. We're Coming Home Again
22. Whatsername