15 Greatest Rock Concept Albums From The Last 15 Years

9. Green Day - American Idiot

Oh shut up, haters. You knew this had to be included at some point. Green Day has received what seems like an unending amount of flak for ditching their punk-ish slacker sound in favor of something substantially more political and dramatic. And though some of those criticisms are warranted (writing a rock opera about a character called "Jesus of Suburbia" is as pretentious as it gets), it's hard to deny that Billie Joe Armstrong and his crew brought their best songwriting to the table for American Idiot. Vaguely socially conscious concept aside, American Idiot features some of the best craftsmanship the band has ever produced. "Extraordinary Girl" remains one of their most interesting melodies, "Homecoming" is 9-minute distillation of the evolution of punk music, and "Letter Bomb" even teases listeners with a Nimrod-esque throwback. Do the frequent allusions to George W. Bush hold up? Eh, not so much. But most of the individual stories are universal enough to go down smooth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1OqtIqzScI