Green Day have returned to their roots with their 14th studio album, Saviors, re-entering the rock scene with a bang. After recent missteps, it is refreshing to see the American band being influenced by their own previous work that has been loved by millions. Despite the album retaining elements of the band’s previous work, it is still a raw, energetic and undoubtedly rock and roll album.
Saviors incorporates some of Green Day’s most prominent characteristics, packed with songs about politics, social issues and love. There are definitely some highlights, including ‘Bobby Sox’, ‘One-Eyed Bastard’ and ‘Living in the 20s’. It feels like the band is giving us insight into their deepest feelings about everything and anything. The style of the songs is similar to most of Green Day’s grunge style, the band being veterans of the power chord.
Saviors opens with a confrontation of current issues on ‘The American Dream is Killing Me’ with frontman Billie Joe Armstrong singing about homelessness, unemployment and TikTok. It touches on the essence and political notions of American Idiot and undoubtedly feels angry and anarchical.
‘Bobby Box’ is a highlight of the album, demonstrating Armstrong’s melancholic pop sensibility. ‘Dilemma’ and ‘1981’ justify the band’s punk-rock reputation with a dirty, grunge sound that resembles 90s Green Day, showing that sometimes less is more. ‘Dilemma’ is packed with social commentary with lyrics like “welcome to my problems” and “I don’t want to be a dead man walking”. Armstrong sings about problems with alcohol and substance abuse as well as a potential love. The raw sound of the album goes hand in hand with the raw political commentary and mentions of insecurity, love, regret and anarchy. The shredding guitar solos on ‘living in the 20s’ reinforce the rawness and grunginess of the album.
From the start, Armstrong makes it clear that he is sick of the American dream, saying on the opening track that it is killing him. On ‘Living in the 20s’, he discusses “another shooting in the supermarket”, adding to the political criticism expressed across the album’.
The title track ‘Saviors’ asks if “somebody will save us tonight”, calling out for an unknownfigure who is expected to save us from our doom. The last song of the album, ‘fancy sauce’, is like a well constructed yet anarchical epilogue to the album, starting with “take me to the inn/ to the looney bin” and ending with “we all die young someday”. It feels like Armstrong’s last straw, the one that makes him say that he has had enough.
The cover of the album ties everything together, making it feel like a true anarchical take on the American dream. Overall, ‘Saviors’ embodies some of the characteristics and values of Green Day that we have come to love and respect. Although not every song is unskippable, it brings us back to the old days while offering a fresh and exciting new angle. Every song is tied together, painting the picture of a failed American dream and false expectations
7.5/10