Just prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020,
Green Day
released
Father of All¿
-- an album co-produced by
Butch Walker
that found the punk-pop veterans ratcheting up the glam as they tightened their song structures. It's difficult to separate the album's short shelf-life from the culture's sudden lockdown but in any case,
Father
didn't open up a new horizon for
, so they went back to what they know works: heavy, hooky power pop given crunch and weight by
Rob Cavallo
, the producer who helped beef up their sound 30 years prior on their major-label debut
Dookie
.
Saviors
follows the same rough blueprint as its forefather -- garagey rockers are countered by exuberant melodies and wistful ballads -- but the trio is smart enough to not attempt to mimic either the snottiness or their frenetic rhythms here.
sound exactly like what they are: rock & roll lifers settling into middle age, irritated by some shifts in culture but still finding sustenance in the music they've loved for decades. They may rhapsodize about a "Corvette Summer" in a salute to the glory days of pre-MTV AOR but age hasn't made them crankily conservative or excessively nostalgic.
send certain catchy rock styles from the past through a loud, muscular filter, an execution that tempers their lingering punk influences without seeming lumbering or slow. The ballast makes
seem streamlined and steady, a shift in emphasis that is impossible to ignore on first listen; they seem as if they're retracting. After that initial impression fades,
sounds cleaner, stronger, and purposeful, all due to the still-sharp pop instincts of
Bille Joe Armstrong
. Age may dampen
's roar, but it has also heightened their songcraft, and that's reason enough to give
time to let its hooks sink in. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine