Single Review

Oh dear. Whatever has happened to Green Day? 21 Guns is the second single from their eighth studio album, 21st Century Breakdown, and given that it is five years since a spectacular return to form with American Idiot, it would not be unreasonable to have high expectations of the latest material.

If 21 Guns is truly representative of 21st Century Breakdown (and we must hope it is not) then all those fans that rushed the album to number one moments after it had been released will surely have already forgotten about it. 'Guns' appears on another album this year; the soundtrack to Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. If revenge is to take the form of listless, leaden soft-rock then fear not, Green Day are all over it.

It is reported that Billie Joe Armstrong had written in excess of 40 tracks ahead of recording the new album, perhaps 21 Guns is one he co-wrote with Robbie Williams' old friend, Guy Chambers; that would at least explain (but not excuse) the sugary rock-by-numbers approach. It even sounds like a soundtrack song - but that's not to suggest it has any filmic or epic quality; it really doesn't.

It is four-and-a-half minutes of meandering stadium rock that, without seeing Revenge of the Fallen, easily evokes slow-mo montages of the inevitably and implausibly pretty humanoid cast meeting triumph and despair with ice-white teeth. If you've seen the film and I am right, then you owe me five pounds. It is, in fact, four-and-a-half wasted minutes that you'll never get back; so spend them doing something more enjoyable - like sucking a wasp.

Green Day have been grafting for nigh on two decades and with each year their once subversive rock seems to have nudged ever closer to the mainstream. Certainly, on hearing 21 Guns, the riotous brilliance of Basket Case has never seemed farther away.