Green Day was in the spotlight for a brief moment at the start of 2024 when the band heard the sound of hysteria from the right-wing media. Fox News ran a segment to get their viewers angry over the stupidest of things, this time over lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong’s decision to change the lyric “I’m not a part of the redneck agenda” to “I’m not a part of a MAGA agenda” during Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin Eve. Fox threw a tantrum, claiming they were no longer a punk band because they were now no longer anti-establishment, as who could be more anti-establishment than Donald Trump, a billionaire politician from New York who was friends with Jeffery Epstein? 

Not only did that happen this January, but Green Day also released a new album titled “Saviors” following their horribly received previous album, “Father of All.” The new album has been hyped up by the band to be their greatest album since “Dookie,” which turns 30 this year, and the equally famous “American Idiot.” While this is certainly one of their better albums, I don’t think it will be remembered as fondly by the broad punk rock community as an exceptional album. However, amongst Green Day fans, this album is the definition of what Green Day is, and personally, this is one of my favorite albums they’ve ever released, despite what Anthony Fantano thinks.   

I must say that the first song in this album was probably one of the worst punk songs of this decade. There are many issues with this track, such as the premier song titled “The American Dream is Killing Me,” something I’m sure every Green Day fan can relate to. This song is Green Day’s attempt to recreate “American Idiot” for the modern era, but instead, the song comes off as more liberal dad energy than the cool hip leftist that is espoused in “American Idiot.” This is the case with the lyric “Tik Tok and taxes,” which sounds like a Gen X dad wrote it, as Billie Joe Armstrong is himself. The song also has a few other lyrics that make me say, “Billie Joe, what were you thinking?” 

There are some genuine bangers in the album, such as “Look Ma No Brains” and “One Eyed Bastard,” which are both just classic banger punk rock songs. These two songs were released last year as singles before the release of the full album, but I didn’t listen to them until I heard them in the full record. Other banger songs in the album include “1981,” which has rather goofy lyrics, such as the infamous: “She is a cold war in my head, and I’m East Berlin.” 

I was looking online to see what the fan favorites were in the album, and a surprising amount of people expressed fondness for “Fancy Sauce,” which I thought was one of the worst songs in the album. 

Billie Joe Armstrong also wrote some more personal songs compared to the previously mentioned tracks. The fifth track in the album is called “Dilemma,” in which Billie Joe Armstrong discusses his struggles with alcohol. The song is very different from the previous songs in the album as the record goes from being for melodramatic fools and starts to become deep. The song is catchy and masterfully written, despite talking about a serious and difficult part of Billie Joe Armstrong’s life.           

Overall, I would say that this album is Green Day’s 3rd best album of all time, behind “Dookie” and “American Idiot.” Thank you for taking the time to listen to me whine.