Rob pointed out the other day that the Allmusic review of Green Day's American Idiot actually compared it to the Fiery Furnaces' Blueberry Boat, which is weird and kind of interesting. They did make the comparison on the basis of "it's the only good contemporary comparison" but the main thing seems to be a love for mid-period Who and longer songforms that aren't expicitly prog or experimental. The only place I really see the Who thing in American Idiot, to be honest, is on "Homecoming," which has a pretty explicit reference or two (c.f. the acoustic guitar break around 3:30), but it's an absolutely fantastic track, full of not only lyrical but musical references to previous songs, and a really nice way of going from section to section. (The Furnaces, on the other hand, mainly took drum style, keyboard parts, and ambition from Daltry et al.)

The thing this suggests for me, though, is this, and I'm going to let y'all answer it cause I gotta go to rehearsal. If Cobain hadn't died, and when Nirvana had made their inevitable (I think) concept album, would it be more like Blueberry Boat or more like American Idiot? (Or, I guess, something else?) I wonder...

posted by Mike B. at 5:53 PM 0 comments