Green Day: Back in Black (Eyeliner, that is)

Nearly five years after the release of their 2004 blockbuster American Idiot—it sold some 12 million copies worldwide, and yielded five singles—the boys from Berkeley return this spring with their eighth studio album, 21st Century Breakdown (not including, lest we forget, a little 2007 side project). And now we have an official release date! It’s May 15, though you can get lead single “Know Your Enemy” digitally sooner, on a soon-to-be-announced day in April.

A few EW staffers were given a sneak peak last month (you can read about it here), and basically, it’s not a huge departure for the band. Fans of Idiot will appreciate the trio’s continued three-chord raging-against-the-machine and rock-opera flourishes, like dividing the album into three parts: “Heroes and Cons,” “Charlatans and Saints,” and “Horseshoes and Handgrenades.”

As we’ve reported, they’re not the only returning late ’90s/early ’00s pop-punk icons returning this year (see No Doubt, Blink 182, et al). Which one has you feeling most pogo-y in your old Dickies, readers?

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