Release and Reception
Alternative Press called the song a "huge rocker" which is a "fierce call to arms against apathy". It was also referred to by Spin as sounding "like an out-take from the Dookie sessions". About.com's Bill Lamb said the song was "standard issue Green Day", "not a stroke of genius" and "not on par with their last album", but said it was a "great appetizer" for one of the most eagerly awaited albums of 2009. Pitchfork Media described the track as having "pedantic stiffness" and "nothing more than a rote protest song preaching to the converted". Rolling Stone called the song one of the highlights of the album, praising the punk-oriented sound and calling it a "Clash-size bootboy chants". Billboard said that "The lead single from the band's new release, "21st Century Breakdown", finds the group just as politically charged as last time", but also said that "While the subject matter is broad and may be missed by some, "Enemy" has enough charm to amp up the airwaves until (21st Century) Breakdown is released."
Billie Joe Armstrong told Q, "It’s a rallying song. It’s about liberating yourself from a lot of bullshit that you see on TV." The song managed to top both the Billboard Mainstream and Alternative Songs charts at the same time, while cracking the Top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100, so far reaching number 28. The song entered the Alternative Songs chart at number eight and rose to number one in its second week. It kept the top spot for six weeks. It became available as a downloadable song for the music video game Rock Band on July 7, 2009, along with the songs "East Jesus Nowhere" and "21 Guns" and is also featured on the soundtrack to the video game NHL 10. It has been used on the trailers for the movie The Spy Next Door as well as being used to promote Comcast and the Wimbledon on ESPN.
During their "21st Century Breakdown" tour show in Minneapolis on July 11, 2009, Billie Joe Armstrong told the crowd that the song had been recorded on the first day of the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, MN.
"Know Your Enemy" was used as the theme song for WWE Smackdown since the show's debut on Syfy from 2010-2012.
It is also played at Green Bay Packers games when the away team comes out of the locker room.
FC Halifax Town also use this as their walk out song when playing at home.
The song is also featured on the Awesome as Fuck live album.
Read more about this topic: Know Your Enemy (Green Day Song)
Famous quotes containing the words release and, release and/or reception:
“We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have suffered the pain of loss, and the more wearing, continuous pain of frustration and failure; and have had moods of unlooked-for release and peace. They have known and watched in themselves and others.”
—Elizabeth Drew (1887–1965)
“The steel decks rock with the lightning shock, and shake with the
great recoil,
And the sea grows red with the blood of the dead and reaches for his spoil—
But not till the foe has gone below or turns his prow and runs,
Shall the voice of peace bring sweet release to the men behind the
guns!”
—John Jerome Rooney (1866–1934)
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)