‘The American dream is killing me.’
It’s been a good 30 years since Green Day had to worry about that grand old vision of American success, not since 1994’s Dookie meant they wouldn’t have to struggle to make ends meet ever again. And it’s been 20 since they did the trick a second time with American Idiot. At this point, all orbiting 50 with no shortage of folding money to their name and feet firmly under the table as one of the most successful bands America has ever produced, punk or otherwise, some might wonder what Green Day have left to fight for. Not for them having to work two jobs. The fuck, some might muse as Billie Joe Armstrong sings the above line on the opening throw of his band’s 14th record, do they know about normal life and normal concerns anymore?
Listening to Saviors, they just know. They remember. Like Springsteen, born to run but not all the way away from where he came from, Green Day’s magic and worldview is actually at the core quite a simple and universal thing that’s actually not so far removed from where they started. It’s why, two decades after American Idiot was released, the simple flick of a lyric to now make it declare that ‘I’m not a part of a MAGA agenda’ sums up so much, so relevantly, in so few cuttingly sharp words. They just know.
Saviors is an album that once again finds them working with producer Rob Cavallo. It’s a partnership that gets a certain something from them, in this case filtered much more simply than on the grand American Idiot, but with more learned skill than Dookie. Often, it’s simply a raw, in-the-room capture of Billie Joe’s wizardry with three chords and a feeling. Take the grungy Bobby Sox, the pop-punk rush of Coma City, or the gobby Look Ma, No Brains! – all feel direct, off the cuff, alive.