The Punk Site 2024 Top 40: #2 Green Day – Saviors

There’s something glorious about finding a new band about to put out their first or second record. The feeling of discovering them young and watching them as they not only trip and fall into their own sound but find ways to push the norms and expectations of the genre. New tempo, new tone, new harmonies, a raw production or slick recording. Everything works together to create an album that comes out of nowhere and shocks the senses. What comes after then becomes the real test. Not many bands are able to change the musical landscape and then keep the excitement going one, two, three albums later. It takes something special to stay in the zeitgeist – an undeniable talent that can’t be written off as youthful experimentation. Green Day bombarded on the scene in 1994 with Dookie (yes, they had two albums before; but let’s be honest, Dookie is where everything changed).

That was exactly thirty years and eleven months ago and not many bands can carry on a career of that length and magnitude. Yet, when they came breaking down the door in January 2024 with their 14th studio album, Saviors, there was that sensation all over again. By this point in time, you know what to expect from Green Day and Saviors is exactly that without the hiccups of their last few albums. They’re back on the top of their game – particularly on the opening trio of The American Dream is Killing Me, Look Ma No Brains and Bobby Sox. Coma City pulls from Blacklist Royals while Father To A Son continues Green Day’s acoustic adventures. Dilemma works almost as a b-side from American Idiot. Throughout all fifteen songs, Saviors rattles through with a raw crispness that has been lacking in pop-punk lately.

The album straddles the line of nostalgia and innovation for a sound that is simultaneously new and comforting. When a band breaks through with that one massive album, it feels like dynamite exploding all around. To keep that fuse lit for thirty years is a testament to their skill and Saviours brings the spark that they lost on Father of All Motherfuckers back to the forefront. It makes you want to say that Green Day are back, but did they ever really leave?