For a long time now, punk rock superstars Green Day have been teasing a new album, the follow-up to 2020’s Father Of All Motherfuckers. (It was technically released as Father Of All…, but we’re going to pretend that didn’t happen.) Green Day recorded the new LP with their longtime collaborator Rob Cavallo, who produced Dookie and American Idiot. Early reports said that the album would be called 1972, the year in which all three Green Day members were born. Those reports were incorrect. Green Day’s new album is called Saviors, and it’s coming out at the top of next year. (Good cover art.) Today, they’ve dropped the first single.

Green Day’s new song is not a surprise. This past weekend, the band headlined the When We Were Young festival in Las Vegas. Before the show started, they played a club show in Vegas, where they announced plans for a 2024 tour with the Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid, and the Linda Lindas. (They still haven’t unveiled dates for that tour, but I’m sure we won’t have to wait long.) At the same show, they debuted their new song “The American Dream Is Killing Me,” identifying it as the first song from their new album. They also played the track at both When We Were Young nights. (They debuted “Look Ma, New Brains!,” another new track, on Sunday night, as well.) Today, they’ve dropped the official album announcement, and “The American Dream Is Killing Me” is its first single.

Green Day say that “The American Dream Is Killing Me” was one of the last songs that they recorded for Saviors. In a press release, Billie Joe Armstrong says, “As soon we cut it, we said, ‘OK, that’s going first… [It’s] a look at the way the traditional American Dream doesn’t work for a lot of people — in fact, it’s hurting a lot of people.” The song is a big, soaring rocker about a fucked-up political climate, and it has a few unexpected bursts of strings. On first proper listen, I’d have to say it’s the best new Green Day single in many years.

Brendan Walker and Ryan Baxley directed the black-and-white video for “The American Dream Is Killing Me,” which shows Green Day surrounded by zombies in Los Angeles. Check it out below.

https://x.com/greenday/status/1716803732719980907

Saviors is out 1/19/24 on Reprise/Warner.