Anthems from the deep end

Angry, visceral and highly charged — these are some of the adjectives we can apply to these two CDs. It’s been a decade since the Slim Shady CD and this is Eminem taking stock of America 2009, and his own personal nightmare of a journey. As for Green Day, after the multi-platinum success of American Idiot, here’s something just as ambitious, a second punk rock opera, that keeps alive the angst and turmoil of punkers everywhere.

Relapse — Eminem (MCA Universal). Taking his own drug addiction as the lynchpin of his new CD, Eminem is in one nasty mood. It seems nothing and no one is spared his acerbic and deadly rap-ier. In one song alone, We Made You, he takes on the likes of Jessica Simpson, Sarah Palin, Kim Kardashian, Ellen and Portia, Lindsay and Samantha, Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer, Britney Spears and K-Fed, and leaves no hostages. Same Song and Dance, Must Be the Ganja, and the track that features Dr. Dre and 50 Cent, Crack a Bottle, are the tracks that impressed the most. To be honest, I can’t listen to an Eminem CD in one sitting, and it’s individual tracks that I can appreciate. There is a “sameness” to the music and it’s more the message that had me howling and cracking up. He really takes risks, making Christopher Reeves jokes that border on the side of tasteless, but that’s Eminem for you. Sacred cows beware!

21st Century Breakdown — Green Day (Reprise/Warner Music). Before the Lobotomy, Murder City and 21 Guns — these are my predictions for the hits that will follow Know Your Enemy, the first hit single off Green Day’s new CD, 21st Century Breakdown. After selling more than 12 million copies worldwide, American Idiot may be a tough act to follow, but this new studio album of the Day proves that everything is right with the band — and that everything is wrong with the world. And that makes for straight ahead, vitriolic punk rock that chronicles the odyssey of Christian and Gloria, two ill-fated punkers/lovers, out to make sense of the world they live in. While the concept of the two lovers may at times weigh heavy on the flow of the songs, one can’t fault the band for sustaining a high level of ambition and artistic vision, going for more than just a random collection of punk-angst tunes. It’s Punk’s own West Side Story!