By Max Cohen
It’s a story as old as rock itself– an influential act sticks around way past their prime and releases loads of questionable garbage with a few glimmers of their former glory sprinkled in. Green Day has covered a lot of ground since their nose dive in the aughts. They’ve put out a weak spiritual successor to a beloved concept album (21st Century Breakdown), a meth induced mess of an anthology (¡UNO! ¡DOS! ¡TRÉ!), and a cringe pop/garage rock shit heap (Father of All…). But the legendary punk trio are still due for a surprising return to form. On January 19th Green Day is set to drop their 14th studio album Saviors and the latest single, “Dilemma” gives hope this could be the one to recenter their sound.
Still, it’s probably best not to expect too much.
Things were looking pretty bleak for Saviors at first. Lead single “The American Dream is Killing Me” serves their vaguest political commentary to date with a weak marching feel and schmaltzy strings, while “Look Ma, No Brains!” is too forced and vapid to be any fun (they rhyme “knucklehead” with “shit the bed,” huge bummer). And then there’s that very lame twitter description which is somehow worse than the 2020 Father of All… billboard.
But “Dilemma” is actually good! While the doo-woppy opening 20 seconds are a miss, all is forgiven when the huge guitar-wall chorus kicks in. This is the heaviest Green Day has sounded since Insomniac, likely because they’ve reunited with long time producer Rob Cavallo, and it feels like a revelation. Refreshingly this song is also about something. Billie Joe Armstrong, who has a known history of addiction, is talking about the wide-eyed mania and despair that comes with relapsing. What’s lacking in cleverness (not that Armstrong’s ever been subtle) is more than made up for by his aged, groggy verse delivery. He slurs his words as he reaches for the high notes of “sit around in rehab / feeling like a lab rat.” On the chorus Armstrong’s full shouting, hitting a gravelly break up on the last “I don’t want to be a dead man walking!” That desperate scream punctuated with stacked fuzzy distortion makes for primo headbanging.
The rest of the instrumental is great too. Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool serviceably hold it down with a steady bassline and some classic tom fills. The bright, plucky sound of the bridge and solo section have that American Idiot dreaminess. And when the full band cuts out so Armstrong can yelp “I was sober now I’m drunk again” it’s hard not to join in.
“Dilemma” is set to be what “Bang Bang” was to 2016’s Revolution Radio: a heavy sounding, pointed standout on an otherwise underwhelming trip through rock mediocrity. If the band can focus and recreate the song’s nostalgic magic and power-pop sensibilities there’s hope for this to be an at least decent late career album, maybe even a good one. No telling if we’ll get another single before Saviors so enjoy “Dilemma” and prepare for the worst. I mean it’s 15 tracks long. They can’t all be bad, right?
good review! the part where you claim you wrote American idiot in its entirety and that BJA stole it was questionable, but a good read overall!