ALBUM REVIEW: Saviors – Green Day
For many, it’s a huge deal every time a new GREEN DAY album rolls round. They’re a band that many have grown up listening to and some even still do, and there is no disputing the fact that they essentially defined the genre of pop-punk with 1994’s incredible Dookie. Ten years later in 2004 however they faced falling into obscurity before redefining the genre once more with a career best American Idiot, and now 30 and 20 years on from both of those albums the band are back and on very welcome form with their latest offering Saviors.
Since October, the band have released a smattering of singles to promote Saviors to start building up the hype train. It would be understandable to be sceptical about these new tunes after their last album Father Of All Motherfuckers (2019) proved to be a meandering mess that lacked the classic GREEN DAY feel that we’ve come to know and love. Fortunately, lead single The American Dream Is Killing Me showed that any such scepticism was misplaced. It was a very welcome return to form which felt like the GREEN DAY of old (well, 2004). It’s a huge and grandiose sounding track that will instantly have you pumping the air with your fist as soon as those first guitar notes and swinging drums are heard, with a loud and raucous chorus and a focus on themes such as disillusionment with the ‘American Dream’ that so many people have fallen foul to over the years.
The title track itself goes hand in hand with a track that comes midway through the album; Strange Days Are Here To Stay, an apt commentary on the state that the world is in today, pinpointing 2016 as the year where everything went to shit following the death of David Bowie, Trump’s election and the growing generational divide. It’s almost as if there’s a trilogy of tracks throughout the record too, with Living In The ‘20s rounding out this trifecta, once again taking aim at the state of things as Billie Joe Armstrong yearns for a much simpler time, bemoaning the frustration and confusion in a world that continues to be divided by those intent on causing as much damage as possible.
One of the best tracks on the album however is the mosh pit inducing Look Ma, No Brains. It has the grubby, snarky and fast-paced quality you’d find on albums like Dookie and Nimrod that makes it a perfect addition to the GREEN DAY discography; it’s fun and boisterous and would honestly have no trouble fitting on any of the band’s albums really. Also adopting that classic snarkiness is the track One Eyed Bastard, a tune you’d want to listen to before a scrap that hypes you up before you take on people that need dealing with. With a riff very similar to that of So What by P!NK, it wastes no time hooking you onto the excellent earworm and an even more infectious chorus that is sure to be a hit when it’s brought to stadiums worldwide come the summer. There is plenty more of this as you make your way through the record; Coma City employs that euphoric and stadium-sized sound that has crept its way into GREEN DAY’s music over the years, with a power-pop lead guitar riff that will make you want to dance, and the same goes for the wonderfully simple yet effective 1981.
Amidst the manic tracks on Saviors, the band also find time to explore a more vulnerable side to themselves. Ever since Nimrod, there seems to have been a ballad-esque track on a GREEN DAY record and on Saviors that particular track is Father To A Son. It’s a poignant track in which Armstrong looks back at raising his own children whilst lamenting the lost opportunities of his own childhood following the death of his father when he was eight years old, starting off acoustically before evolving into a huge orchestral piece that will have thousands holding their lighters or phones up in the air in live settings. Dilemma also leans towards the more mature and poignant moments. It’s a grungy effort that sees Armstrong confronting his past addictions and struggles with mental health, resulting in his unwillingness to talk to other people about them and coming to terms with that later on in his life. It’s definitely a rallying cry to those who also struggle with the same issues.
Overall, this is an incredibly solid album. Working as a bridge between their two most seminal albums, it adopts that raucous and chaotic element of Dookie yet blends it in with the clean cut and grandiose scale of American Idiot. It wouldn’t be at all surprising to see it creeping into people’s top five albums by the band. Whilst only clocking in at a solid 45 minutes, Saviors is the perfect piece of escapism where you can channel your anger through music. It feels like it understands you and helps you manoeuvre a confusing state of affairs. As we enter 2024 with the world seemingly on the brink of falling into chaos once more, it almost feels right that the Oakland trio return with something to say. And if you feel like nobody has your back, you can be damn sure that GREEN DAY do.
Rating: 9/10
Saviors is out now via Reprise Records.
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