American Idiot by Green Day (20th anniversary)

On 20 September 20 2004, the punk-pop-rock band Green Day appeared on David Letterman to play the title track of their seventh studio album, American Idiot. Their fellow guest? The then-Democrat presidential candidate, John Kerry. It was a well-timed appearance. The song – and album – is a blunt evisceration of the Iraq War and George W. Bush’s presidency through the lens of the fictional “Jesus of Suburbia” in post-9/11 America. Within a few months, Kerry would lose to Bush, and the rest is history. But two decades since its release and with 23 million copies sold, American Idiot and all it represented lives on. And weeks out from the 2024 US election, the band is marking its 20th anniversary with a deluxe edition featuring 15 previously unheard demos, live recordings from 2004 and a new documentary on the impact of the album. Of course, the world has shifted on its axis since Billie Joe Armstrong first decried he wasn’t “part of the redneck agenda”. But a relisten to the album in full is almost painful.