Green Day's first number one album since 1994's multi-platinum Dookie--which is likely due to the fact that while the lyrics may have a deeper meaning, the hooks are still there, and they are played with the same intensity that made the group famous more than a decade ago. Spin said the title track was "Green Day's most epic song yet.

The work challenges listeners to dig deeper than the high-octane guitars and thundering drums that drive the record's jubilant pop sheen. This is a multi-layered, literate narrative that effectively wields anger, wit, and bombast to expose the ugliness that seeps below the surface of this country's patriotism, commercialism, and nationalism.

"A lot of rock music lacks ambition. Rock has become stagnant. There are a lot of bands that aren't doing anything differently than what's currently going on in pop music--like issuing a single, putting out a record, making a video, and hopefully getting on a tour with a bigger band. I think the reason hip-hop has become so much bigger than rock lately is because those artists are much more ambitious, and they are making records that have a concept and characters. They sound like a script." ~Billy Joe Armstrong

"All my songwriting is about creating a statement and taking action. On American Idiot, it's reflecting on what's going on in the world right now." ~Billy Joe Armstrong