Green Day – Saviors
Green Day are back with their best album in 20 years, stuffed to the brim with anthemic punk rock choruses skewering life in the post-COVID era
It can’t be easy being a punk rock band for four decades. It really can’t be easy being a punk rock band that have been global superstars for much of those four decades, like Green Day have. How does one rage against the machine when you have become part of it?
Green Day, it seems, have found the answer by taking aim with a blunderbuss and sending a volley of fury at a range of targets including Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Instagram influencers and Uber drivers who turn up late. The resulting album, Saviors, is a hugely entertaining return to form, with some of the seminal American rockers' best music in decades.
There is a palpable and genuine anger emanating from tracks like Living In the '20s, which tackles the post-COVID decline in public civility, and Dilemma, a song detailing struggles with addiction and mental illness. There's also space for levity, such as on Corvette Summer, a straightforward (and fantastic) rock tune about music’s innate ability to transport you away from life’s problems.
The standout track on Saviors is Bobby Sox, a Weezer-esque grunge anthem about young love that will soon have tens of thousands in stadiums screaming their hearts out to the chorus. Green Day are back, and just in time.
Listen to: Bobby Sox, Living In the '20s, Dilemma