Saviors- reviews

[emenius]

UNCUT (music magazine, UK)

GREEN DAY, “Saviors”

REPRISE

7/10

Ageless punks still letting it rip on 14th studio album

Three decades after Green Day's breakthrough LP Dookie and 20 years after the trio upped the ante with the thematic tableau American Idiot, these pop-punk progenitors get back to basics on Saviors. Reconvening with Rob Cavallo, who co-produced their signature records, they unleash 15 compact, primarily pro forma bangers.

Along the way, they revel in Billie Joe Armstrong's wry brand of political satire ("The American Dream Is Killing Me", "Strange Days Are Here To Stay"), gleeful self-mockery (*Look Ma, No Brains!" "Dilemma") and nostalgia (1981, "Corvette Summer) before climaxing with the anthemic lullaby "Father To A Son" and the Revolver-esque title track.
 

Green Day's motor, as always, is Tré Cool, who attacks his drumkit with vintage-punk fury and Bonzo-level force.

 

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ROLLING STONE

GREEN DAY'S GROWN-UP PUNK

The band's 14th album has huge songs and snotty satire for a world on fire

By Kory Grow

MORE THAN three decades ago, Green Days Billie toe Armstrong was sarcastically singing "Welcome to Paradise." Now at age 51, he's staidly singing, "Welcome to my problems," on

"Dilemma," a plaintive, swinging rocker on Green Day's 14th LP, "Saviors,' which owes a debt to Fifties rock and the Ramones. "I was sober, now I'm drunk again," he wails in the chorus. "I'm in trouble and in love again/I don't want to be a dead man walking?" It's one of the album's best songs, and as another pop-punk trio once put it, well, I guess this is growing up.

After all, "aging punk band" might be the most oxymoronic phrase in music. But Green Day, much like combat rockers the Clash, long ago figured out the path to mainstream salvation was leaning away from punk and into their big box influences while satirizing the world at large. That approach made the Bay Area trio punk's biggest-ever band, and it's Armstrong's alternating earnestness and sarcasm, combined with some typically hummable tunes, that makes Saviors' something of a return to form for Green Day, who drifted a little too far into pop territory on 2020's Father of All Motherfuckers.

Since merry melodies have always been their forte, "1981" is particularly memorable with its chorus - "She's gonna bang her head like 1981" - even if Armstrong's lyrics about slam-dancing in acid rain read, like, totally gnarly. (Armstrong has always had a knack for fluffing up puerile lyrics with smart chord changes.) "Coma City" and "Corvette Summer" are both big rock songs for the sake of big rock.

Armstrong's lyrics fall into three categories: songs about growing up ("Dilemma," the acoustic dad-rock ditty "Father to a Son"), silly songs about nothing ("One Eyed Bastard" is a Sopranos- esque goombah rocker that has refrains of "Bada-bing, bada-bing"), and, of course, heaps of social commentary. Some of it is amusing - the conservative satire "The American Dream Is Killing Me," the proud bisexuality of "Bobby Sox," a dig at "assholes in space" bankrupting the planet on "Coma City" But Armstrong misses his target on "Liv-ing in the '20s" when he sounds a little too blithe singing about the deadly 2021 King Soopers mass shooting in Colorado.

Still, Green Day have always been less about actual activism and more about laughing while the world around them burns. That atti tude has made them survivors in the hazardous profession of punk rock, and they know it. "Everybody's famous, stupid, and conta-gious," they sing, sending up Nirvana on album closer "Fancy Sauce," "as we all die young someday." But what's impressive about 'Saviors' is how they've gotten (mostly) better with age.

[CherryBombs&Gasoline]

Thanks for posting this! It’s always nice to read positive reviews, even if there’s often quite a big discrepancy between professional critics and fans. But I really hope that this album gets a better reception than FOAM.

Btw, calling Dilemma gleeful self-mockery sounds kind of wrong to me. Even if you aren’t aware of Billie‘s struggles with addiction, how is battling alcoholism funny? I get that the video is amusing and sad at the same time but I still think it’s a pretty serious song.

[stories and songs]

@CherryBombs&GasolineThat’s why I’m not a fan of reading reviews. Reviewers make such weird comparisons to other music and interpret lyrics in really off ways sometimes. I think the emotion behind Dilemma is apparent in how it’s sung, and it’s definitely not gleeful lol.

[jengd]

Agreed, gleeful self-mockery is an odd way to describe it.  It’s more complicated than that, it’s melancholic, almost desperate at times to me, but handled fairly lightly when you watch the video.

[Redundantuserjinxboy]

Never forget: UNCUT gave American Idiot a 3/10

[PleasedToMeetMe]

A lot of people didn’t really “get” American Idiot at first, wasn’t really until BOBD that it started to become a monster. I remember the first month or so after its release it seemed like only a handful of people understood how great it was. 

[ekim]

Why can't we get a full track by track album review? These music journalists are lazy as fk! 

Anyone who describes an acoustic ballad as dad rock is a fkn tool!

[The Grohl]

1 hour ago, ekim said:

Why can't we get a full track by track album review? These music journalists are lazy as fk! 

Anyone who describes an acoustic ballad as dad rock is a fkn tool!

It's not laziness. I write reviews for various publications and it's all about hitting that deadline. If you're lucky you get the album a few weeks in advance to make your deadline. Sometimes it's only a few days. They want to get these reviews out ideally before the album drops because the week after it comes out they're already moving on to the next thing. It's all about timing, which honestly sucks the fun out of reviews.

[Clockwise]

The embargo is lifted on the 15th so maybe we'll get some more in-depth reviews/track-by-tracks around then.

[ekim]

48 minutes ago, The Grohl said:

It's not laziness. I write reviews for various publications and it's all about hitting that deadline. If you're lucky you get the album a few weeks in advance to make your deadline. Sometimes it's only a few days. They want to get these reviews out ideally before the album drops because the week after it comes out they're already moving on to the next thing. It's all about timing, which honestly sucks the fun out of reviews.

It's such little details about a major release the best review so far was the Italian billboard article and they gave away some lyrics to each song as well 

[The Grohl]

1 hour ago, ekim said:

It's such little details about a major release the best review so far was the Italian billboard article and they gave away some lyrics to each song as well 

True but they had plenty of time with the record. When you don't have as much time and need to meet a deadline there's a higher chance you just churn out generic mush that's not saying much. 

[Yosuke Hanamura]

14 hours ago, emenius said:

 ("Dilemma," the acoustic dad-rock ditty "Father to a Son")

Can we please let the term "dad rock" die? I don't care how It's used, the term is so fucking cynical and dismissive of a song's quality. Much like "mumble rap".

[ekim]

16 minutes ago, Yosuke Hanamura said:

Can we please let the term "dad rock" die? I don't care how It's used, the term is so fucking cynical and dismissive of a song's quality. Much like "mumble rap".

The guy who wrote this probably thinks maroon 5 are great 

[stories and songs]

The “dad rock” comment is weird to me because there’s music people literally categorize as “dad rock,” as in something a dad would listen to (which is dumb), but this song is literally about being a dad, so who knows what the writer even meant by that lol.

[Yosuke Hanamura]

1 minute ago, ekim said:

The guy who wrote this probably thinks maroon 5 are great 

Not sure where you came to that conclusion. Moves Like Jagger is okay, but I don't care for them much otherwise.

I say this more from the standpoint of a Gen Z guy who just hates that music in general has to be stigmatized. I highly respect the artists who made rap the phenomenon it is today, and keep it going strong to this day, and hate that boomers stigmatize it, etc.

[ekim]

9 minutes ago, Yosuke Hanamura said:

Not sure where you came to that conclusion. Moves Like Jagger is okay, but I don't care for them much otherwise.

I say this more from the standpoint of a Gen Z guy who just hates that music in general has to be stigmatized. I highly respect the artists who made rap the phenomenon it is today, and keep it going strong to this day, and hate that boomers stigmatize it, etc.

Rolling stone magazine lost credibility when they started putting boybands on the cover in the late 90s early 2000s this guy shouldn't have been the one reviewing the album should've went with a seasoned music journalist 

[Yosuke Hanamura]

5 minutes ago, ekim said:

Rolling stone magazine lost credibility when they started putting boybands on the cover in the late 90s early 2000s this guy shouldn't have been the one reviewing the album should've went with a seasoned music journalist 

Ohh, I misread your past comment. I thought you meant "The guy who wrote this comment probably thinks Maroon 5 are great."

[ekim]

6 minutes ago, ekim said:

Rolling stone magazine lost credibility when they started putting boybands on the cover in the late 90s early 2000s this guy shouldn't have been the one reviewing the album should've went with a seasoned music journalist 

Kory grow has been there since 2014, not exactly rookie but the way he reviewed this was very amateur no credible music journalist should use the term "dad rock" 

[billy1986]

Did rolling stone stop doing away with giving stars in reviews?

[HAPPY ZOMBIE UNICORN]

3 hours ago, billy1986 said:

Did rolling stone stop doing away with giving stars in reviews?

I think this is not the main RS review, they have both a main one giving stars (also published online), and then other journalists giving shorter reviews like this. I remember the same happened for FOAM and RevRad. 

[Christian's Inferno!]

17 hours ago, ekim said:

Why can't we get a full track by track album review? These music journalists are lazy as fk! 

Anyone who describes an acoustic ballad as dad rock is a fkn tool!

We haven't even heard the song Father to a Son. Do we even know it's a ballad? The review doesn't mention it as a balld, just as acoustic dad-rock

Idk why you're so angry all the time. Every time I see you comment here you're complaining about something or calling other artists shit

[CherryBombs&Gasoline]

10 hours ago, Yosuke Hanamura said:

Can we please let the term "dad rock" die? I don't care how It's used, the term is so fucking cynical and dismissive of a song's quality. Much like "mumble rap".

Agreed, the term is basically used for every rock band over 40 by now, which is honestly just dumb. As if musicians of a certain age can’t make good music anymore. Every generation has its heroes and music keeps changing all the time but songs aren’t bad or boring just because middle-aged men like them. People call bands like the Beatles or Pink Floyd das rock and act as if these bands didn’t have a massive cultural impact. Just let people enjoy their favorite artists without shaming them for it.

[pacejunkie punk]

13 minutes ago, CherryBombs&Gasoline said:

Agreed, the term is basically used for every rock band over 40 by now, which is honestly just dumb. As if musicians of a certain age can’t make good music anymore. Every generation has its heroes and music keeps changing all the time but songs aren’t bad or boring just because middle-aged men like them. People call bands like the Beatles or Pink Floyd das rock and act as if these bands didn’t have a massive cultural impact. Just let people enjoy their favorite artists without shaming them for it.

It’s ageist 

[Mato]

I think you guys all forget that 90 percent of music critics don't really have any musical education nor are musicians. Just like any music fan, they listen to a lot of different music and have an opinion. But what does that mean? Therefore it's a really weird situation where a musical artist or a band needs good reviews, but at the same time those are given by mostly incompetent people. The same thing is where an average listener can't really perceive music in its entirety in contrast to someone who plays and actually understands music, but at the same time, an artist is making music exactly for those same people (apart for themselves and their passion and love for music).

I never cared what any critic had to say about music, because ultimately, I am the best critic for my own taste in music, and so is every other person for theirs. Music critics are only here for the business part of the industry, and it will always be like that.

 

[Sanity Loan]

1 hour ago, Christian's Inferno! said:

Idk why you're so angry all the time. Every time I see you comment here you're complaining about something or calling other artists shit

The ”Ignore” feature of this forum is very useful 🙂