Saviors
Album by Green Day
Released 19 January 2024
Power Pop / Pop-Punk
Produced by Rob Cavallo / Green Day
Rating – 6/10
Green Day are back on track…sort of…
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I don’t believe in clear rights or wrongs in music, but if you’re a noteworthy musician, once you’re so far into your storied career, you should make sure you aren’t making music that sounds like it could be made by anyone. If I have a genuine gripe with Green Day’s Bobby Sox, it’s that they reverted to ‘indie band doing something ‘60s-ish’, a trope that might not be as common as I’m making it sound, but that’s the thing; it exists, and I can’t name the artists that it exists within because they end up as forgettable faces in forgettable crowds.
Still, that has nothing to do with whether the song is any good or not – and I should also say I’ve never been too enamoured with Green Day’s “personality” anyway. The song epitomises the yin-yang of Saviors; hardly driven by individuality or specific creative stamp, but decent songwriting, decent communication, a bit of uplift for a band whose previous album blew, whose ticket prices are un-punk.
Bobby Sox features a sonic boom of a chorus. When it is revisited, Billie Joe Armstrong’s voice takes a sledgehammer to everything, screaming the words “DO YOU WANNA BE MY GIRLFRIEND?” like a slightly more irritable Joey Ramone. There’s your communication.
It ain’t Dookie but it’s tight, with cuts like Dilemma containing a similar guitar-vocal rage. Simple chords hold up Armstrong’s bloodily-throated cry of “I DON’T WANT TO BE A DEAD MAN WALKING” in a credible display of songwriting that won’t offend and expressive vitriol that might.
This expression is channelled through revisitation of Green Day’s olde punk merits – see 1981, Look Ma No Brains (to some extent) and Strange Days Are Here to Stay, which is basically a new Basket Case.
Songs devoid of personality that have little else to offer include Coma City, and Goodnight Adeline, which reads like a Social Distortion afterthought – there’s a bit of a cowboy thing going on in there. I’d rank One Eyed Bastard in the same category, but its sense of angry dismay makes up for its P!nk rip-off riff. The American Dream Is Killing Me has the reverse issue; it sounds like Green Day, but a dryer, American Idiot / post-American Idiot Green Day I find difficult to care for.
Extra-melodic slow rocker Fancy Sauce at least sees the album off on a note of compositional affirmation. It’s nice to know that after Father of All there is something still working in Green Day’s anatomy. Saviors may not answer all of their problems, but it wilfully sweeps the wrongs of four years ago under the rug.
Best track – Dilemma.
Rating – 6 out of 10
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