The recipe for a Green Day album is as follows: loud drums, a few grungy chords, explicit choruses, politically charged lyrics, and Billie Joe Armstrong’s angsty vocal tones. Add an occasional crunchy guitar solo and you’re good to go.
The band’s newest album Savior, released on Jan. 19, follows this recipe flawlessly.
Green Day has made yet another album that sounds like … Green Day.
Now, this is pretty impressive. Thirty years after being an influential part of the punk revolution, the trio – frontman Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tré Cool – can still make music that mirrors that of their greatest hits.
Most of the songs on the band’s fourteenth album are fun and catchy with easy-to-follow lyrics.
Green Day has been notoriously not shy about expressing their political views, and this shows on some of the songs on this album.
“Coma City” references a post-apocalyptic world and fiery current political topics with lyrics like “Don’t call the cops / Word on the street is they all quit their jobs.” “Bobby Sox,” with lyrics alternating between “Do you wanna be my girlfriend?” and “Do you wanna be my boyfriend?” may very well be a pride anthem this year.
Other moments on the album are memorable as well, like the angry and angsty “Living in the 20s,” and the grungy guitar solo in “Goodnight Adeline.” “Look Ma, No Brains!” mirrors the style of “American Idiot”, the title track from the band’s 2004 album.
“Father to a Son” is another decent song, and this one is deep for the band, as all three members have children.
“Saviors,” the title track and the penultimate song on the album, has the best harmonies. This song has an arena rock feel, and the repeated “calling all saviors tonight” would be a fun song to scream in a mosh pit.
Overall, Saviors shows that the members of Green Day can still rock out and create new music, and they can still effortlessly pull off the classic Green Day sound from the ’90s.
Chick D • Jan 24, 2024 at 6:10 am
Green Day captures the pent up anger as well as the joyous rapture of the American psyche. It should be required listening for Gen Xers, Gen Yers. Gen Zers and the boomers who really took to the band when they arrived back then