Still angry after all these years
Green Day
They have sold more than 90million albums, won Grammy awards, and even drowned in a lake of toxic waste in The Simpsons movie.
Happily, Green Day’s 14th studio album shows the old punks have lost none of their anger or gift for crafting insidiously catchy melodies.
Saviors marks a return to form after the relative let-down of 2020’s Father Of All. It’s punchy punk-pop laced with sarky humour and solemn protest.
Produced by Rob Cavello, who co-produced their break-out
1994 album Dookie – their best until 2004’s American Idiot – the boys sound revitalised.
They open with the urgent and catchy The American Dream Is Killing Me – a huge song addressing the nightmares of US mass unemployment and homelessness.
“Don’t want no huddled masses, Tiktok and taxes, under the underpass, sleeping in broken glass,” sings vocalist/ guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong.
The upbeat and instantly addictive adolescent strop of Look Ma, No Brains! comes loaded with lines like “I’m with stupid and I’m all by myself”.
It’s short, sharp and sweet.
Perfect punk. As is the urgent, melodic Coma City.
Now in their fifties, Green Day have been going since 1987, standing on the shoulders of giants like The Clash, The Ramones and The Who.
When Billie Joe sings, “We are the last of the rockers, making a com-mo-tion” it could be Pete Townshend playing the stabbing power chords.
Dilemma nods back to the 1950s with its melancholy pop feel. “I was sober now I’m drunk again,” he sings. “I’m in trouble and in love again.”
It’s one of the many pleasures here, along with the sway-along closer Fancy Sauce.
Anything from the worldconquering Californian trio is worth hearing, and these 15 tracks remind us why we all embraced Green Day in the first place.