Retronaut Selects: Green Day - Saviors (2024)

Something happened to me when I saw Green Day perform on New Year’s Eve. I had no idea Green Day was releasing a new album until I saw them on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. I saw them perform Dilemma and I thought it was fantastic and I couldn’t wait to hear the album.

Seeing Green Day on New Year’s Eve resulted in something more than me being excited to hear their new album. It reminded me of all the memories I have of Green Day. Some of my memories include listening to Uno!, Dos!, and Tre! when they were released and listening to Warning with my dad. 

This has led to me relistening to Green Day’s catalog and there are so many songs that weren’t singles that are great songs like Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, Whatshername, Carpe Diem, Sex, Drugs & Violence, Lazy Bones, and Blood, Sex and Booze.

I’ve only liked a few popular bands in my life and as I’ve been relistening to their catalog, Green Day is the one of them. 

Billie Joe, Mike and Tre stuck together through good times and bad times. That’s rare because the music industry makes artists change their sound to sell more records. This is when the fights start and everyone goes their separate ways because what you want and what the industry wants are two different things. This isn’t how it should work. Any label working with an artist should be willing to sit down with an artist and let the artist say what they want to do and a discussion can be had so the artist and the label are happy. 

Many people will say that Green Day sell as many records as they do because they are a popular band. Green Day is popular because they work hard. They started as three friends who released music on independent labels and played shows in clubs and they ended up on a major label and played arenas. They kept going. They didn’t quit when things got hard. 

Success is not giving up when it’s hard, it’s finding a way to keep going. There are highs and lows in everything and you can’t quit when things are hard. You have to remind yourself why you started. We think of success as money and fame, but success is being able to do what you love. Many people don’t do what they love because you can’t get a paycheck for it. If it makes you happy, do it. Don’t think about money or fame or power. If you do become rich and famous, use your money to help others.  

I’ve never been so disappointed by so much music coming out and it amazes me what is being promoted. I’ve always believed that it means something if I’m blown away by something because I’m open minded but not easily impressed. If something blows me away, it’s good. New Year’s Eve was a night that was incredible because I was actually blown away by Green Day. There were a lot of performers but Green Day was the only one that blew me away. We need more performances that blow our minds, because most of what is coming out is okay and not fantastic.  

Saviors is the 14th album by Green Day and it is terrific. It was created with the album mindset instead of the song mindset. What this means is that Green Day wanted to make a great album instead of creating a few great songs. The album mindset is rare because everything released today is made for the single market and people aren’t listening to albums. The record companies worry more about a #1 single than promoting a great album.

Essential Tracks: Dilemma, 1981, Coma City

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There was a zine style lyric book made for the Saviors listening parties and Green Day recently shared a link for people who were unable to make it to a listening party to get a copy of the zine. The zine was created by @getarealjobkid.

You can download a copy of at: https://saviorszine.greenday.com

Photo credits: Red Background (@abaxley) + Lawn Chairs (@emmieamerica)