Related Articles
Green Day have been singing about the collapse of the modern world on their albums for years. There’s never been a shortage of source material or inspiration, so they were able to use that same premise to fuel “The American Dream Is Killing Me,” the first official single from their forthcoming studio album Saviors, out Jan. 19.
Billie Joe Armstrong knew “The American Dream Is Killing Me” would be the record’s first single as soon as the band finished cutting it, despite it arriving as one of the last tracks they created for the album. In a statement, the frontman described the song as “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.”
In the accompanying music video directed by Brendan Walter and Ryan Baxley, Green Day takes center stage in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. As everyone consumes each other — a nod to the endless feed of social content online — the band watches the relentless brutality escalate. But when Armstrong moves out into the sea of zombies, they don’t target him. They surround him, reaching for him as hunters blow their brains out.
“The American Dream Is Killing Me” and the yet-to-be-released b-side single “Look Ma, No Brains,” was first premiered over the weekend in Las Vegas, where Green Day headlined the When We Were Young festival. They performed the record during a special appearance at Fremont Country Club, singing about the obsolete and unemployed, TikTok and taxes, and family homes being bulldozed to build condos.
As the first two offerings from the album, the records offer a glimpse into the narrative woven by Green Day on Saviors — which seems to be that there aren’t any, not anymore, and maybe there never were. The album was helmed on the production end by American Idiot and Dookie collaborator Rob Cavallo.
