Critic's evaluation
It's an album that comes two years after the provocative Fathers Of All... Motherfuckers. A product that arrives just under 20 years after the announcement of American Idiot, the album on which the group reached the height of their fame. Back to their critical-political roots, Green Day announce Saviors, their 14th studio album.
It's like observing, from the top of a hill and to the sound of the sea waves, a deep horizon taking on pastel and gradually vivid colors as the sun takes its place as king of the day. This is how the base guitar welcomes the listener. With warm and comforting chords, it deceptively, with the addition of a second dirty guitar in a trotting unison with Tré Cool's drums, leads the viewer into verses with melodic bursts that flow into equally riding sound phrases that communicate, in essence, the pop punk typical of Green Day. It's then that Billie Joe Armstrong's sweet and sour timbre enters the scene, kicking off the song's lyrical plot. Contagious in its sudden roars that make the sound grow punctually, The American Dream Is Killing Me even shows signs of the timid insertion of ZZ Top-style blues rock into its aesthetic recipe. Surprising the listener, the track is graced by a moment of respite in which the violins waltz in a sweetly agonizing and dramatic interpretation that is in tune with the debauchery that, in a way, seems to sound like a linear continuation of the plot of American Idiot, the group's single. After all, in this new material, Green Day not only represent the pressure of the American people in their task of keeping the illusionistic gears of the American dream running, but there is now also the percentage of current social networks such as Tik Tok in the recipe for manipulating the masses. What's more, there is still fierce criticism of privatization policies and an association of this scenario with an exaggerated sense of individuality, which leads people to assume a self-centred, personalistic stance.
Solar, exciting and energetic in its pop punk simplicity, the new atmosphere is so precise that the viewer realizes Mike Dirnt's contribution to the rhythmic base. With his low bass, the musician gives the song more weight and consistency, even when it flows into more linear melodic verses. With its cheerful, bubbly and catchy chorus, Look Ma, No Brains! is a track that repeats the feat of the previous song. While The American Dreams Is Killing Me sounds like a continuation of American Idiot, this track is a second part of the Jesus Of Surbia odyssey. After all, the character in the song appears lost, directionless, renegade due to a lack of representation and interest, as well as the absence of a parental perception that, despite acting in a rebellious shell, he needs help. Still, from another interpretative perspective, Look Ma, No Brains! brings a story governed by an unbridled sense of childishness and youthful intensity, thus recreating the pubescent atmosphere that glorified Dookie.
Swinging, light, contagious. With a riff embraced by a slightly reggae melody, so as to exude a beachy, uncompromising freshness, the guitar is the first sound element to welcome the listener into this new scenario. Followed by Armstrong's introduction of the lyrical lines, the sound surprises the listener by plunging into a dirty and dense gear after a vocal chorus. With a good contribution from the bass, instilling the melody with a slightly acidic and strident body, Bobby Sox draws the listener's attention by bringing in the sentimental points of view of both the boy and the girl. Transcending the fresh, pubescent aroma of first love, the song is full of romanticism entangled in youthful insecurity.
The combination of the guitars and the low bass in the melodic base make the melody exude a seductive and irresistible sensuality. In fact, it is denser than the others, darker and more suspenseful. With the help of the sharp piano keys in the airy verses, a hypnotic and manipulative notion emerges, while Armstrong's intonations move between debauchery and pettiness. With admirable Ramones influences in its melodic structure, One Eyed Bastard also has a chorus whose sound is reminiscent of the peak of 867-5309/Jenny, Tommy Tutone's single. Raw, dirty and powerful, the track is a scathing encouragement for revenge, for the conquest of rights, and may even give some the impression that it is referring to the relationship between leader and subordinate and, from there, instigating the deconstruction of such a hierarchy. The same was done by Alter Bridge in their single Pawns & Kings.
A comforting summer evening, with the sensation of the sun's setting light bathing the breasts of the face, is the extra-sensory proposal of the new introduction. Even with just a few sound cues, the listener can easily identify a melodic similarity to the one drawn in Last Night, a single by The Strokes. With a dense sound, Dilemma also features angry pop punk that serves as a bed for a narrative about relapses, about addictions. A track that, above all, highlights the fragility and insecurity of an individual in dealing with life's obstacles. An individual who, aware of his neediness, asks for help to try to overcome his demons.
Fast, energetic, rough. Surprising the listener by already waking up at its peak, the song proves to be a product that, right from the start, parades an infectious melody, even though its rhythmic structure is simple and standardized in the Green Day way. Solar and with curiously nostalgic notes, 1981 is an exciting ballad that tells of a forbidden and socio-morally conflicting romance. Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, its plot touches on political issues from another era. 1981 is the need to vent in order to get away from the socio-political conflicts that take away any sign of normality. It's intensity as an escape from suffering.
If 1981 sounded like a ballad, Goodnight Adeline is here to take that credit away. After all, in its very first moments, it parades a denotatively melodic, soft and bubblegum melody. Coming out of a controlled intensity, she dives into acoustic phrases governed by the softness of the guitar, an element that ends up adding melancholic touches to the sensory recipe. With its catchy, penetrating and captivating chorus, Goodnight Adeline is a great achievement by Green Day in that it makes a plot about a character governed by a sense of hopelessness and a mixture of lack of belonging and motivation have its seriousness purposely overshadowed by a radio melody. In this way, while some sing it aware of its sensitive bias that yearns for better days and a meeting of instigations, others will just be listening to it purely and simply lulled by its sound.
It's like marching under a rising sun and waving banners of peace and truce. With an atmosphere of hope, the melody brings a glowing joy that overwhelms the listener with its sense of positivity. Flowing towards a dirty and rough apex, the song communicates an aesthetic influence in relation to that created by the Ramones that gives it an urban but light ambience. The curious thing is to realize that, even under this energy of contagion and subtle joy, Coma City emerges as a song that criticizes recklessness and police aggression. It's hard, in this sense, not to remember the case involving Oscar Grant, which was even portrayed in the feature film Fruitvale Station.
The guitar appears alone with an intensity that makes the first signs of sunlight coming from behind the mountains already bring generous doses of adrenaline and excitement. In a way, it's even possible to perceive, amidst the dirt and roughness with which it is pronounced, that the instrument recreates an ambience of Los Angeles in the 80s from its glam metal aesthetic. Flowing into an undulating melody with the cowbell's high-pitched tinkling playing a leading role in the rhythmic counting of time, Corvette Summer becomes a sweetly infectious piece in which both the cadence and the vocal melody during its chorus recreate the same sonority present in All Around The World, a single by Oasis. With a relaxed setting and a slightly fun energy, Corvette Summer, with its plot about a character who uses the sound of rock n' roll as a method of relieving his suffering, fits melodically into the same radio genre as Good Night Adeline.
With a dizzying nostalgic aroma, the melody, although in the process of being constructed, presents an unprecedented architecture in Saviors. Providing an experimental blend of indie rock and R.E.M.-style folk rock, Suzie Chapstick has an intoxicating sound theme in its sonic linearity that comfortably embraces a plot about heartbreak. So, unlike Bobby Sox and 1981, the song features a character in a state of inability to overcome the sentimental pain that makes him dream of a reunion, a fresh start. A second chance.
From the union of voice and guitar, the immediate awakening of the new song already provides a slight aesthetic kinship with that also drawn by Green Day in their single Scattered. Melodic in its rawness, this melody therefore recreates the energy acquired on the group's albums from the Dookie era. It's no wonder that, at times, the guitar movement still manages to bring out sounds reminiscent of the iconic riff from Basket Case. Curiously, as its sound architecture grows and becomes more mature, the track also ends up resembling Letterbomb, another single by the trio. Apart from their aesthetic similarities, Strange Days Are Here To Stay manages to bring together nostalgia and melancholy, while dialoguing hopelessness in an almost anarchic social chaos. Promoting a discussion about the exacerbated sense of individuality, intolerance and personalism, the track manages to get the listener interested in a social reflection by bringing hopelessness and disorder to the forefront of a circus of horror in which society is moving towards an orphanhood of representation and compassion.
Energetic in its undulating sphere, the melody brings, without delay, a kind of anger fused with a curiously numbing adrenaline. Highlighted by the tinkling of the tambourine as it flows towards its climax, Living In The 20's uses its little over two minutes to deal with anachronistic themes in relation to the year in question. Dialoguing, between puritanisms, about media manipulation and the influence of technology on social routine, Living In The 20's is a work that essentially deals with the fragility of the individual when inserted into an environment full of stimuli. A fragility capable of making him forget his own essence.
It's like watching a rainbow form in front of a drizzle in the shape of a bridal veil when it comes into contact with the sunlight on an autumn evening. Sitting on the edge of a cliff, one's eyes are penetrated by such scenery, but with a distant physical presence, as if traveling freely through space-time at a frightening speed. Before he can even notice the presence of another person, he is surprised by a warm, comforting embrace that completely warms his heart. Beginning with a sweet waltz provided by the guitar, the song is also graced by the gentle, carefully icy scent provided by the piano. Completed by a serene, fluttering waltz from the violins, Father To A Son becomes a touching track in its melodic context that transcends the lyrical lines. After all, under an interpretation of intense delicacy, Armstrong invites the listener to walk through the relationship of affection and love between father and son. A relationship that highlights the human character of individuals in such a way that, even though they are susceptible to error, it guarantees a mutual desire for a better world in which to live. It's a true apotheotic antithesis between the world we have and the world we long for. As such, it's hard for parents and children not to be moved to tears by the human honesty with which Father To A Son represents a parent's altruistic desire for their offspring to grow up and live in a better place than their own.
It begins with a simple but imposing and consistent melodic phrase. Stimulating and exciting, the song marks a perfect synchrony between guitar and drums when it comes to creating an atmosphere of hope. A hope blinded by the presence of an almost mythological character whose task is to save the world from its structural chaos. Not least because the verses that best define the title track are "calling all saviors tonight" and "make us all believers tonight". In this way, the song also highlights the absence of a sense of representation and, above all, of a mixture of belonging and importance to such an extent that it demands the attention of superiors towards a society that has been marginalized.
It's like hearing the sound of the tide coming through the fogged-up window. Immersed in an extremely messy and disharmonious setting, the character finds himself in a state of numbness after ingesting tranquilizing and hallucinogenic products. Almost like a seemingly perfect soundtrack to the Hangover trilogy, Fancy Sauce is governed by a sound that awakens a sense of debauchery and hilarity in the listener through a minimalist sound structure. With a dramatic chorus and occasional, purposeful outbursts to amplify its harmony, Fancy Sauce has a truly dramatic storyline, featuring a character judged to be crazy because he is lost in a deep, bitter sadness. Mixing notions of the sense of manipulation of a hyper-connected world with the way society in general presents itself with a weak perception of itself to the point of always being insecure and influential, Fancy Sauce highlights a curious notion of structural victimhood coming from a community absent from its own self-knowledge.
It has to be said, first of all, that Saviors surprised expectations. It surprised by mixing lightness and seriousness, debauchery with rejection, reflection and hilarity. It's an album that will certainly catapult Green Day back to stardom in the music industry thanks to its perfect equalization of the extra-sensory and melodic ambience of albums like Dookie and American Idiot.
That's not the only reason why there's an aesthetic familiarity between the materials. After all, the present compilation of 15 unreleased tracks transcends a harsh and sour freshness, while discussing subjects of pure reflection in the socio-cultural, socio-behavioral and socio-political spectrums.
It's at this point that the trio delves into issues such as self-knowledge, belonging, representation, loneliness and the antithesis of hope and hopelessness. Going into lighter fields, there are also songs that deal with love and romance, as in Bobby Sox and 1981, and with overcoming heartache, as in Suzie Chapstick.
Filled with frenzy, excitement and vivacity between its explosive phrases, Saviors brings a rawness of sound that Green Day has not revisited for a long time. The Californian trio have achieved a dirty and intense sound, and this time they don't seem to have worried too much about offering ballads and melodies that are roundly radioed. After all, among their 15 chapters, only Goodnight Adeline and Corvette Summer fit the bill.
Exuding exquisite anger and absurdity, the album also stands out for being, in Armstrong's own words, the most visceral and autobiographical track included on the tracklist. Dilemma is the song in which the singer transparently proposes to discuss his addiction to alcohol with open arms and without fear of judgment.
Of course, without the company of two other important components, Saviors wouldn't have achieved such boldness and ruthlessness. After all, while Cool made each track fluid and precise, Dirnt made the melodic bases have a harsh, strident aroma, thus cooperating with the rawness that exudes from his melody.
Synthesizing these qualities is Chris Lord-Alge. As mixing engineer, Alge has resumed his partnership with the band, which was interrupted in 2009 with 21st Century Breakdown. On this album, he has preserved the stridency, roughness and rawness of Green Day's sound, making the album sound more alive and intense. In this way, he emphasized the pop punk that made the trio's name, but also experimented with indie, reggae, blues rock and glam metal.
In the role of producer comes long-time partner Rob Cavallo. Just as Michael "Elvis" Baskette is to Alter Bridge, Cavallo is to Green Day: the other official member, but one who stays in the wings. Like a scriptwriter, the professional brought together the group's needs and desires for the album and made the material a perfect intersection between criticism and fun.
Released on 01/19/2024 via Reprise Records, Saviors brings Green Day back to the strength and virility of American Idiot. Showing themselves to be more mature, responsible and even aware of their influential position, the Californian trio have achieved the ideal balance between maximum stridency and radio-friendly melody with Saviors.
