I'm probably the last person who should be reviewing a Green Day album. They could release an album that to every other reviewer on the planet takes in the best bits of Irish folk, bhangra, industrial techno and happy hardcore, and to me it would still sound like a load of overproduced, whiney, self important, nasal, sixth form shit. So objectivity could be something of a problem here, but I'm going to give it a go anyway.

21st Century Breakdown is a load of overproduced, whiney, self important, nasal, sixth form shit. It actually is.

Other reviewers have noted strong Who, Springsteen and Queen influences. And I guess, in fairness, you can hear those bands. The title track, for example, features a proggy Who-esque intro before settling into a Boss-at-his-most-MOR-uninspired dirge. The album is split into three acts (Heroes and Cons, Charlatans and Saints and Horseshoes and Handgrenades) which is certainly as pretentious as Queen. Elsewhere I hear echoes of The Beach Boys in 'Last of the American Girls' - though by 'echoes' I mean that it is exactly the same tune as 'Fun, Fun, Fun'. Album closer 'See the Light' is a direct descendent of AC/DC's 'You Shook Me All Night Long'. There are also a great many piano ballad intros reminiscent of Elton John if he had suffered from a tragic Sinex allergy for the last 25 years. So yes, the influences are diverse and numbered. What a shame then, that every single song still ends up sounding like a terrible Clash parody. Or, when, as on 'Peacemaker' they attempt a folky protest song, like The Levellers. Good god.

Speaking of whom, the lyrics. Though 21st Century Breakdown has been described by the band as "chronicling the life of a young couple named Christian and Gloria as they deal with the mess our 43rd president left behind.." In reality though, the narrative is near impossible to follow, the targets vague and non descript (the aforementioned God, and those nasty politicians mainly), and the rhetoric empty and impotent, full of shouty phrases like "I've got a really bad disease" and " waging the war, and losing the fight", which sound oh so important when shouted really loudly, but actually say nothing.

At times, it sounds like Green Day are beginning to want to age gracefully (the plethora of soft piano intros being a case in point). For some ludicrous reason though, they still believe themselves to be a 'punk rock band', so self consciousness dictates that the piano is always replaced by three chord pop punk wankery after 67 seconds. If Green Day could only see that noone over the age of eleven has ever considered them a punk rock band, they'd actually realise that it would be much more rebellious - and indeed entertaining - if they did a piano ballads album. But hey, what do they care; they sell millions of records to people who think they sound nothing like a load of overproduced, whiney, self important, nasal, sixth form shit, so I can't see them changing anytime soon.