ALBUM REVIEW: Green Day - Saviors

    I consider myself to have good music taste, at least in my opinion - that being said, there is a horrible truth about me that I've hidden from all of you reading this: I am, in fact, a closeted Green Day fan. It's the truth. When I first heard Kerplunk! a number of years ago in 2016, a middle school-aged Lambda was obsessed. I quickly picked up on everything up to American Idiot, but by the time I had gotten to about seventh grade, they had fallen by the wayside for me - I had now discovered The Beatles on my own, and entered a three-year phase of "all modern music is trash!" that we all inevitably have. Luckily, I have since grown up and learned to love Green Day just a bit again, and I'd be lying if I said that I still didn't hold Dookie, Nimrod, and especially Insomniac close to my heat. All that being said, even by the time I had begun to intake modern music again (which would be about the same year I began reviewing music), I had effectively given up on Green Day as has-beens - it was all too easy given the continuous slip of quality, and since their latest record had been the assuredly terrible Father of All, I saw no reason to care anymore. That was until "Dilemma" and the impending release of Saviors, and for a brief moment, the long forgotten Green Day fan inside me was sparked back to life - then I heard the rest of the album. To be fair, Saviors still may be some of the best stuff that Green Day has recorded in literal years, but given that the band themselves have put this album on the same metric as Dookie and American Idiot, I feel warranted to be more critical.

    First, allow me to get some of my immediate bias out of the way - I think Green Day are terrible with political lyrics. Always have. American Idiot may be a musically accomplished album, but I'm not going to pretend that I think it has aged particularly well lyrically or anything. It might be unfair of me to pick on a pop punk group for lyrics, but I'd argue that Insomniac and Dookie are very well-written, and cover issues of bisexuality, isolation, paranoia and drug abuse. There's room for serious topics in Green Day's lyrics, but I think they're just shit with writing about the political landscape. You want proof? "The American Dream is Killing Me" opens with some of the least subtle critiques of modern America I've ever heard, to the point where it's almost patronizing. This is probably the worst of the political commentary on the album, although there are even worse musical moments. "Good Night Adeline", "Corvette Summer", and "Suzie Chapstick" lean on similar lines so some of the Father of All material, and I say that in the most hateful, vindictive way I can. These songs blow, and rank amongst the worst things on the album. Even some of the songs that stray away from this like "One-Eyed Bastard", which was somehow deemed good enough to be a single, are neutered by an assuredly rancid singalong chorus. Green Day, admittedly, tries a few things throughout this album, evident by the subtle ambitions of the opening track or the almost throwback to their 90s days on "1981", but these vary in success - the latter track is fine enough, but all it reminds me of is the fact that I could be listening to Dookie instead. Other experiments, though, like the ballad "Father to a Son" with its gentle orchestra and admittedly saccharine lyrics, is a fantastic moment - somewhere halfway between "Wake Me Up When September Ends" and "Last Night on Earth". It really is quite good, and stands as a strong moment in the album's very strong final third.

    That brings me to the good of the album, because it is here if you squint hard enough. "Look Ma, No Brains!", ins spite of some seriously stupid lyrics ("Rude boy going comatose / Drop out and I'm adios".. really?) has a strong melody and chorus that more than makes up for it. This was the first hint of the idea that maybe, just maybe, Green Day could strangle a victory out with this album. "Dilemma", at the end of the album's first third, only heightened this feeling just before the terminal disappointment of the second third - the track was hailed as their best material in nearly a decade from more than a few people that I talked to, and while I'm not quite sure I can say that with full confidence given how much everything from the Uno! Dos! Tre! trilogy and after has faded into the background of my mind, but I can't deny that "Dilemma" effectively combines their pop punk with some of the more theatrical elements of their 2000s work. The result is a great song that was rightfully chosen as a single - of the four that were released, it's handily the best one. The final third of the album helps pick things back up, too, with a great run of songs. "Strange Days Are Here to Stay" also suffers from some embarrassing lyrics about baby boomers and how you can't be funny anymore or whatever, but it carries a similarly confident melody and chorus that makes up for it, and immediately helped throw some life back into what was an otherwise somewhat weak record. "Living in the '20s" has probably some of the dumbest lyrics in the entire album, but at least it has some of the most genuinely balls on the album musically - there's some real power in this one that's lacking throughout the album. The title track, the penultimate song, may be my favorite moment on the album. It has a real anthemic feel, and its lyrics manage to feel more politically resonant than any of the more overt message songs - this is how they should write songs like this. It's probably their best political commentary since American Idiot, really. Heck, I like it more than "Minority", too, but that song fucking blows. Finally, "Fancy Sauce" is a throwback to what Green Day does really well - songs of lethargy and generally wasting away. Y'know, like the good old days! Jokes aside, this is also one of the album's best moments.

    Perhaps the best thing about Saviors, in my own personal estimation, is something almost completely unrelated to the album itself - in my initial listens of this album many months ago, I re-examined Green Day's older catalog, working my up through American Idiot as I did. In that time, it allowed me to rediscover my long lost, almost subdued love, of their music. In my slightly older age, I have a newfound appreciation for the pop writing, aggressive production, and effective lyricism of their golden era - I have also gained a deep love of Mike Dirnt's bass playing, which has unfortunately been more subdued in the days since their prime time. Saviors got Green Day on the mind again for the first time in literal years, and for that I'm thankful - I'm also just as thankful that they managed to get back on their element just a little bit with this album. It's clear to me that they'll be quite the same group they were in Dookie days, but even through the boring, the embarrassing, and the terrible, Green Day still have some good songs in them. It may be their best album since the 2010s, which is maybe not saying much, but it's worth something to me. Just stay away from this whole "TikTok and taxes" talk for the next album, okay guys? Please.

RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯

Listen to Saviors.