On December 31st, 2023, Green Day performed at Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest. During their performance of the song American Idiot, singer Billie Joe Armstrong altered a lyric to instead say that he’s “not a part of the MAGA agenda.”
This isn’t the first time Armstrong stood against the 45th president onstage. A few years back, a clip of the band performing the song Bang Bang went viral, wherein Armstrong proclaimed “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA.”
Regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum, it cannot be denied that this brought a great deal of attention to the band. This couldn’t have come at a better time for them, as this buzz sprung the trio back into the limelight just in time for the release of their fourteenth album, Saviors.
Many critics cited Saviors as a “return to form” for the band. So, it is worth reviewing what form the band is returning from in the first place.
The band’s previous album Father of All… was panned by many critics who cited the album as “blandly formulaic,” “messy,” and “miserable.”
Personally, I found the album to be really derivative of the sounds of rock songs released in the previous 15 years. The title track, for example, sounds like a post-Hot Fuss Killers song which would soundtrack an IPhone commercial in 2008. The hand-claps which appear on several songs combined with the “woo-oo”s remind me of the indie rock hits which would sneak onto the charts in the early 2010’s.
Father of All…’s fifth track I Was a Teenage Teenager sounds like a song performed at a “cool kids” party in a Nickelodeon sitcom, not only because of the ham-fisted corny lyrics but also because of the strange additions of a clanging piano and high pitched back-up vocals which remove any kind of edge from the track.
Suffice to say, Father of All… is not a good record. However, the band pitched that record during it’s promotion as a much needed return to form for rock.
The implication of a billboard like this is that the record it is promoting will be more “rock and roll” than anything being released during this time. It lampoons the use of foreign songwriters, features, and trap beats. The fact that none of these things are typical of rock music and are instead common factors in the creation of pop and hip-hop projects probably speaks more to the band’s insecurity than it does to the album’s vision.
Father of All… managed to snag the number-one position on the billboard rock chart for one whole week, a feat most impressive when the competition for that position was mainly filled by pop songs which feature a guitar in it occasionally. However, the writing was on the wall for the album. The only track from Father of All… which appeared more than once in any of their concert set-lists in the year prior to the release of Saviors was the title track. When they performed at the pop-punk festival “When We Were Young” last year, none of the tracks from Father of All… made an appearance.
With this in mind, Green Day took a similar, but less anachronistic approach to the promotion of Saviors. While the band never paid for a billboard decrying the use of what they deem to be pop music’s failings for this album cycle, they did speak on their view of authenticity when it comes to recording an album.
In an interview with Tom Power, Billie Joe reflects on the recording of the album, dreamily detailing the joys of recording an album as a group as opposed to separately.
These sentiments continue over the course of the interview, as drummer Tre Cool, bassist Mike Dirnt, and Mike Dirnt’s horrible mutton chops all share their appreciation for the album recording process.
A major addition to this perception of the band attempting to bring out a more authentic rock sound akin to their older days is the addition of producer Rob Cavallo to the project. Armstrong compliments Cavallo and his contributions to their catalogue during the interview with Tom Power. Indeed, it is true that Cavallo worked as producer on Green Day’s most beloved records such as Dookie and American Idiot and was absent during records like Father of All…
With the context of this record out of the way, an important question needs to be answered: Is this new Green Day record actually any good?
The answer to this question is… complicated.
Well, the answer is no, but the reasoning is complicated.
The first single released by the band from this album as well as the album’s first track is The American Dream is Killing Me. The song has a catchy chorus, an energized vocal performance from Armstrong, and a fun rock sound reminiscent of their 2000’s work like American Idiot. What’s wrong with it, you might ask?
The first noticeable problem with this record comes in the form of Armstrong’s lyrics. I’ve seen people dismiss the name-drop of Tik-Tok on this track as Armstrong being old and out of touch, but I found this lyric to actually make more sense over time.
Recently, a congressional hearing was held where social media CEO’s were interrogated by congress people on whether or not their platforms encourage or foster dangerous and illegal behavior. One moment went particularly viral, wherein the Tik-Tok CEO Shou Zi Chew is asked about seven times in a row if he is a member of the Chinese Communist Party,
In my view, the song seems to be referring not to the ills of American society, but rather to the attitudes of the upper class towards the issues plaguing the American people. No, congressmen do not care about the people living in the streets hungry, because they are too busy trying to build a wall, evade taxes, and convince the American parent that Tik Tok is a tool of the Chinese government meant to harm their children.
Now, this is all well and good in my eyes. The line which precedes the chorus, however, is less defensible. Armstrong telling us that “We’re pedophiles for the American Dream” reads less like a sharp critique of the American system and more like someone in his 50s trying to be edgy.
Sentiments like this bleed into the next track, Look Ma, No Brains! The lyrics of the track essentially exist to tell you how messed up and crazy Billie Joe is.
Look out for this guy folks, he’s a… knucklehead?
The lyrics on this track, and across most of the “weirdo punk guy” posturing on this album are really hackneyed and lame. These moments never feel like they’re true representations of the band, who are all currently in their 50s.
Nobody has found any of this kind of stuff to be cool in a really long time. This isn’t the band chasing what they think is cool now (they left that behind on the last record), but rather trying to make what they did 30 years ago seem cool now. They also try to achieve this on the song 1981. The song features mostly name dropping of things they remember from that year like the Berlin Wall, MTV, Communism, and rampant drug use.
The song, or at least analysts of its lyrics online, seem to want to make the connection between the 1980s and today. If this is the case, I think it does a really poor job of doing so as the connections are made through tremendous reaches in logic.
If the song purely seeks to be a nostalgia trip to make their past seem cooler and them less old by proxy, it doesn’t do that either. I know a common Millennial/Gen-X complaint is “why doesn’t MTV play music anymore“, but who is looking back lovingly on the Berlin Wall?
The album’s eleventh track Strange Days are Here to Stay is the most concentrated evidence that Billie Joe’s old man rambling doesn’t make for relevant or interesting lyricism. While something can be said for the change in Armstrong’s life “since Bowie died”, I don’t think there’s any reason to invoke FENTANYL in a song like this without having anything to say about it beyond the passing mention.
No, this isn’t as egregious as the name-drop of George Floyd in Fall Out Boy’s We Didn’t Start the Fire, but you get the picture.
Billie Joe Armstrong trying to be an edgelord is really harshing the good time this album has the potential to bring. I say potential because yes, some of these songs I’ve mentioned actually sound good.
The riffs and melodies on the opening track as well as the thrash and bash energy of 1981 are actually quite appealing to me. I’d probably have more favorable things to say about them if the lyrics were different, but it is worth mentioning that the album sonically is not a failure up to this point.
Up to this point, my major problem with this record has been the lyricism and its tendency to be really stupid and lame. Before I get to my other main problem with this album, there are a couple of songs worth mentioning which don’t fall into either category and are either good or bad for totally unrelated reasons.
The songs Bobby Sox and Dilemma are two of the most streamed songs on the album. For me, they’re the two best songs on the album by a country mile.
Neither of them pay any attention to the lyrics on the verses, and they only exist to bridge the gap between the choruses. However, these choruses are anthemic and catchy like nothing else they’ve written in a long time. Besides, any opportunity I can take to avoid Armstrong’s clunky verses is one I will take in a heartbeat.
Bobby Sox is Green Day’s take on the cheesy love song. While the “woo-oos” on Father of All… were irritating, I found them more endearing in the context of this one song. Armstrong croaking the question of whether the listener wants to be his girlfriend, boyfriend, or best friend brings a Billie Joe specific tinge to the cliche.
This song is also where he steps outside of his vocal comfort zone the most. Rather than the half asleep drone we normally get, Armstrong is screaming at the top of his lungs like he’s in a cornfield looking for anyone to take him to the cotillion.
Dilemma, on the other hand, is a mid tempo rocker extremely reminiscent of their later 2000s work like 21st Century Breakdown. Lyrically, Armstrong croons about how he used to be an alcoholic, but he’s sober now.
Yes, perhaps it’s not very deep or layered but I never asked Green Day to be deep or layered anyway. As a writer, Armstrong typically has the subtlety of a shotgun blast. On a song like this, though, it works. The song has this air of being lost in a way that many people’s journey to sobriety do. What do I do now that I’m not partying all night anymore? This song doesn’t answer that question, but it does bring that feeling of confusion mixed with pride to the forefront in a way that I haven’t really seen manifested before.
On the other side of the fence, there is the occasional song which is duller than dishwater. Track 13 is Father to a Son, a song which conveys Armstrong’s love and commitment to his children despite his mistakes. According to genius.com, this song is meant to be a spiritual successor to the band’s 2004 smash hit Wake Me Up When September Ends. While I couldn’t verify this myself, I do see the similarities. They’re both sad and dreary slow jams which reflect on fatherhood, Billie Joe’s father in Wake Me Up… and himself in Father to a Son.
I find both songs to be a very bleh, and I have to be in a very specific mood to listen to Wake Me Up When September Ends. However, there is no mood I could be in where I could listen to Father to a Son without falling asleep.
Corvette City is a track most reminiscent of Father To All… rather than American Idiot or 21st Century Breakdown. The track is this weird ode to old rock ‘n’ roll. There is this annoying cowbell which keeps the beat on this song while Armstrong spits out these cliches and nothings about how he’s gonna drop a bomb on our rock and roll.
It’s the type of thing you’d expect to hear a Rolling Stones parody band make if they were to pick the lowest hanging fruit they could find. If a middle schooler wrote this song for a class project, he’d get a C- and a letter to his parents asking them to stop buying him guitars for his birthday.
One reading this article might have noticed by now that many of my thoughts on the sonic direction of Green Day’s latest work often boil down to “this sounds like something else.” This is the crux of my second major problem with this album: The idea of the return to form.
Many of the older rock bands have had an album come out which, in some way shape or form, was referred to as a return to form for the band.
Weezer’s latest singular album project came in 2021 in the form of Van Weezer. Pitchfork writer Evan Rytlewski called the album “…a return to the harder edged rock of 2002’s Maladroit.”
Metallica’s 2022 record 72 Seasons was called “A return to form that shows their old machine is still firing on all cylinders” by Helen Brown from The Independent.
Mike Dewald from Riff Magazine called Blink-182’s first album featuring Tom DeLonge in 12 years a return to form, while adding that “The return of DeLonge’s nasally delivery is key both because it’s such an integral part of the band’s sound on its own.“
Why bring these albums up, you might ask?
I bring them up because they all stink.
Metallica’s 72 Seasons is, in my opinion, the best of a bad bunch. However, these albums all have the same problems in common. They’re incapable of treading new ground, they’re filled with rehashes of the same ideas and concepts while just slightly missing the mark in terms of musicianship. It doesn’t feel original, it feels like a rehash because that’s what it’s supposed to be.
This album doesn’t have its own identity. The idea of a band’s “return to form” lies in the idea that the band shouldn’t come up with anything new, but should rather stick with what the fans want from them the most. However, this means that the album is always going to be a lesser version of whatever aesthetic they’re emulating. Oftentimes, this aesthetic isn’t where the band was most creative either, but rather when they were most commercially successful.
Van Weezer is filled with songs which sound like lower tier Weezer singles from the early to mid 2000s.
72 Seasons is trying desperately to emulate their most commercially successful thrash years in the late 80s to early 90s while continuously emulating their last album Hardwired to Self Destruct.
One More Time sees Blink-182 repeatedly try to emulate the thrashers which filled up their early 2000s work without much to show for it.
Saviors is Green Day trying to write another American Idiot.
The problem is twofold. As previously stated, attempting to write another American Idiot is only going to get, at best, a lesser version of that album. This album also removes the linear story which came along with that album, leaving us with a sonic direction and lyrical inspiration stamped right in 2004.
I’m sure Billie Joe lamented about how he can’t be edgy in 2024 by dropping the f-slur repeatedly like he did in 2004 and that led him down the path to tell us how we’re all “pedophiles for the American Dream.”
There’s not much else to say about this album. Coma City is the eighth track on Saviors and… it’s fine? It’s another song that sounds like it was left on the cutting room floor during the sessions for 21st Century Breakdown. I suppose there’s nothing inherently wrong with it, but it doesn’t try to be anything else than what it is: a pastiche.
Track 4 comes in the form of One Eyed Monster which is derivative, but not of old Green Day. Rather, this track rips off the riff from Pink’s So What for some reason. Even still, Armstrong is too lazy to write a hook for this one, instead just repeating “bada bing, bada bing, bada boom.” I suppose we are supposed to believe that Green Day are going to put out a mafia hit on someone.
This song isn’t even bad either, the theme of revenge and violence is actually a nice change of pace for Armstrong but he refuses to cross the finish line in any halfway listenable way.
Track 12 is Livin’ in the 20s and it’s just a regular punk song. It reminds me a lot of the album 21st Century Breakdown and at this point in the album, I am not interested in any lyrical analysis or breakdowns of what Billie Joe Armstrong meant when he said his latest collection of nonsensical edgy garbage.
Would I call this album a waste of time? Probably not; It’s a play on the albums which made the band the superstars they are today and for people really attached to that sound, they might find this an enjoyable listen. Music rating website Album of the Year shows a grand range of reviews.
Longtime Green Day fans seemed to appreciate it, with one user calling it the “perfect blend [of] Green Day’s two best albums: Dookie and American Idiot.“
Those who left negative reviews seem to mostly be people who are already inclined to dislike Green Day’s music (specifically modern Green Day).
As someone who has enjoyed Green Day’s previous catalogue of songs, I found this to be a total slog at times. It’s not the worst album I’ve ever heard by any means, and there are some tracks which I do absolutely enjoy. As a front to back album listening experience, however, I did not enjoy myself very much.
Stay classy, Green Day.