One of the best bands to come out of San Francisco is none other than the rock band Green Day.
Since their rise to fame in 1994 with their debut album “Dookie,” they have been best known as a pop-punk band. They gained more traction 10 years later with their staple emo album, 2004’s “American Idiot,” which is still, to this day, their most politically charged album of all time.
Nearly 20 years after the release of “American Idiot,” Green Day is back with their new album “Saviors,” and while it’s not as politically charged as “American Idiot,” it has politics thrown in there and a bonus: it embraces bisexuality.
I was excited to hear that Green Day was coming out with a new album at the beginning of this year because the last time Green Day released a full-length album as a band was in Febuary 2020 with “Father of All…”
Upon listening to this album, I noticed that Green Day still has their groove and brought it back for “Saviors” and just like with any other album I talk about, I have to have my favorites, and those were easy to pick out from this album.
My top picks from “Saviors” would have to be “Bobby Sox” and “The American Dream is Killing Me.”
“Bobby Sox” is top pick number one because this is the song that embraces Billie Joe Armstrong’s bisexuality. Armstrong came out as bisexual in 1995, which was a troublesome time for the LGBTQ community due to anti-gay politics, the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, and the rise of the “purity culture” movement.
“Bobby Sox” tells the story of a person who is presumably bisexual, asking someone to be their girlfriend/boyfriend. Listening to this song gave me a rush of excitement because, as a bisexual person, I don’t think I’ve heard a single song that asks people who identify as male and/or female (whether it’d be cis or trans) to be their partner.
So when I heard the lyrics, “Do you want to be my girlfriend?” and then heard “Do you want to be my boyfriend?” in the next verse, I felt seen. I love that Armstrong, a fellow bi, gave a voice to the bisexual community as a whole and made all of us bisexuals feel proud about our identity.
“The American Dream is Killing Me” is my other top pick for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that it’s a great first track to open “Saviors” with, the other reason is the track is fun and hypes you up for the rest of the album, and the last reason is that the “American Dream” should be non-existent because it’s an outdated ideology from the 1950s/It’s also a politically charged song, and I love it.
Overall, Green Day’s “Saviors” is a great way to ring in 2024; you should listen if you haven’t already.
