Song of the Week: Before The Lobotomy
By Guest /Feb. 6, 2012 / Comments
This week's song of the week was written by John., a moderator on our forum. You can view the topic for this song on the forum.
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This week, our song of the week is Before The Lobotomy, the 21st Century Breakdown hit about whiskey shots and throwing bricks and burning your dreams into the ground, typical shit we all do on weekends, of course. Listening to Before The Lobotomy, you could almost imagine it as the start of another 9 or 10 minute rock opera like we loved on American Idiot - it starts with soft guitars and melancholy singing, and then fades until there is nothing but an echo, and then some serious energy is unleashed.
The second part of the song is, in my opinion, one of the most fun things to sing-along to on the entire album. And then yet again it all stops, and the song brilliantly circles around.
"Like refugees, we're lost like refugees", and then we are taken back to the beginning, louder and faster than before. "The brutality of reality, is the freedom that keeps me from... dreaming..."
I have to admit, this song was at first not one of my favorites on 21st Century Breakdown, and took the longest to grow on me, but when it finally did, I couldn't get enough. And in the context of all of the album, it is essential - its lyrics bind the concept together with other songs, from the paradoxical usage of the word freedom in describing how one is limited ("the freedom to obey"), to the indulgences of smoking and drinking seen in 21CB's portrayal of the poor and discontent ("Christian's crying in the bathroom, and I just want to bum a cigarette").
Does the song speak more to you about having a good time, or numbing yourself? According to Billie Joe Armstrong, it works either way:
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This week, our song of the week is Before The Lobotomy, the 21st Century Breakdown hit about whiskey shots and throwing bricks and burning your dreams into the ground, typical shit we all do on weekends, of course. Listening to Before The Lobotomy, you could almost imagine it as the start of another 9 or 10 minute rock opera like we loved on American Idiot - it starts with soft guitars and melancholy singing, and then fades until there is nothing but an echo, and then some serious energy is unleashed.
The second part of the song is, in my opinion, one of the most fun things to sing-along to on the entire album. And then yet again it all stops, and the song brilliantly circles around.
"Like refugees, we're lost like refugees", and then we are taken back to the beginning, louder and faster than before. "The brutality of reality, is the freedom that keeps me from... dreaming..."
I have to admit, this song was at first not one of my favorites on 21st Century Breakdown, and took the longest to grow on me, but when it finally did, I couldn't get enough. And in the context of all of the album, it is essential - its lyrics bind the concept together with other songs, from the paradoxical usage of the word freedom in describing how one is limited ("the freedom to obey"), to the indulgences of smoking and drinking seen in 21CB's portrayal of the poor and discontent ("Christian's crying in the bathroom, and I just want to bum a cigarette").
Does the song speak more to you about having a good time, or numbing yourself? According to Billie Joe Armstrong, it works either way:
