Welcome to the first in a series of first listen features, where we give you our initial impressions on a new album release.
Attending a listening party for Green Day’s 14th studio album Saviours a full six days before release was a thrilling experience. It even began with a message from Billie Joe Armstrong thanking fans for taking the time. Opening track and lead single ‘The American Dream Is Killing Me’ inevitably brings ‘American Idiot’ to mind. While the pace is less frenetic the anger directed towards American social injustice, the pursuit of materialism and its resulting negative impact on mental health is a powerful and emotive start to Saviours. Followed by ‘Look Ma, No Brains!’ this is more like the Green Day we know and love. Fast and furious a short and sharp, a two-minute blast of adrenalin.
Saviours contains 15 tracks in 45minutes. The running order is a little stop start with alternating frantic punk and garage rock tracks with slower songs. The calmer ‘Bobby Sox’ is followed by the utter mayhem of ‘One Eyed Bastard’ and this is a pattern repeated throughout the album.
Highlights are inevitably the faster tracks and include ‘1981’, ‘Living in the 20’s’, ‘Coma City’ and the rock n roll of ‘Corvette Summer’ which are immediate in their impact. But there is no escaping the fact that Green Day are now all grown up and it’s inevitable this would seep into their music. ‘Father To A Son’ is an open and honest expression of love for a child. And I wonder just who is ‘Suzie Chapstick’? Is this a lost love?
The biggest surprise is title track ‘Saviours’ which has Oasis written all over it. There is even a “shine” the delivery of which Liam Gallagher would be impressed with! The album closes with ‘Fancy Sauce’ an anthemic, emotive, soaring track which expresses how behaviour and view of the world is impacted by American society and its drive for materialism and consumerism. It seems only fitting that Saviours closes out with a gut- wrenching guitar solo.
On first listen to Saviours it does lack the edge and anger of American Idiot – which by the way is an astonishing 20 years old this year. There are too many tracks that feel like fillers but that’s not to say this is a bad album. Green Day fall foul of high expectation such is the quality of the material that they have produced over their long career. It’s a huge improvement on 2020’s Father of All Motherfuckers and sees the trio railing against politics, social injustice and corruption. Sadly these are themes that still exist today and remain utterly valid as inspiration for Saviours.
