Green Day, one of the world’s all-time bestselling bands, rang in the new year with their 14th studio album, Saviors. Green Day released Saviors on Jan. 19th. Saviors is a punk rock album that features 15 songs, marking the first album that the band has released in four years.
Green Day first stormed the stage in the 1990s, becoming a key part of the Bay Area punk scene. The band started in 1986 in Berkeley California when the band members were teenagers looking to spend more time expressing themselves through music. Their power trio of bandmates consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billy Joe Armstrong, backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tré Cool.
Green Day has never shied away from emotional lyrics, and their newest album, Saviors, is no different. The third track on the album, “Bobby Sox,” is a punk rock anthem featuring liberating lyrics belted out by Armstrong. The song features a catchy and gratifying chorus that fans should look forward to shouting out while attending shows during Green Day’s The Saviors Tour this summer.
Armstrong opens up about his bisexuality, speaking to a LGBTQ+ audience in the song’s chorus with the lines, “Do you wanna be my girlfriend?” and, “Do you wanna be my boyfriend?” the lyrics describe Armstrong dating both men and women, making his sexual orientation a key factor throughout the song. In a press release, Green Day coined “Bobby Sox” as the “‘90s song that we never wrote.”
Originally written for Armstrong’s wife, the band decided to switch up the song’s message to comment on transgender rights and gender fluidity and to support LGBTQ+ relationships. “Bobby Sox,” is an immersive and catchy hit that perfectly develops the sound of the rest of the album as it opens up the floor for Green Day to take a stance on sociopolitical issues as they’ve done on previously released albums.
Fans hungry for nostalgia for the ’90s and Green Day’s classic fuzzed-out punk sound find solace in “Strange Days Are Here to Stay.” The 11th song on the album takes the stage with on-point lyrics that don’t shy away from political issues. The lyrics of “Strange Days are Here to Stay” are charged with emotion, bringing on heartache for future generations and shining a light on issues such as fentanyl, war, and mental health.
The lyrics, “All the madmen going mental, grandmas on the fentanyl now, strange days are here to stay,” speak to society’s issues with mental health and drugs. “Strange Days are Here to Stay” touches on the impacts of the fentanyl epidemic in the song’s chorus and uses satirical wordplay to create vulnerable and relatable lyrics that we just can’t get enough of.
As always, Green Day delivers with the gut-wrenching style that fans have praised ever since the band’s original debut. Magnetic lyrics and angsty vocals make Saviors eighth track “Coma City,” a standout on the album. “Coma City” breaks up fast-paced rock hits with deeper vocals and instrumentals that deliver the perfect punk rock feel.
The entire album of Saviors is an open act of defiance that screams raw punk. Green Day wrote on their Instagram after the album dropped Friday, “If you’re not playing it loud, you’re doing it wrong.” Green Day’s newest ‘90s rock album, Saviors, will stand the test of time, earning five out of five feathers.
