Green Day are continuing to mix punk with political with their latest single “Troubled Times.”
The trio released a lyric video for the new single earlier this week to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the U.S., with the video doubling as the band’s latest effort to shine a spotlight on the negativity and harmful comments and actions of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump.
Posting the video on their website, Green Day wrote, “Today we celebrate Love and Compassion more than ever.”
Directed by Manu Viqueira and David Rodriguez Simón, the video layers historical images of the KKK, the Suffragette movement and the Civil Rights movement. Refusing to pull any punches, the video also includes images of Trump, with Green Day and their lyrics appearing throughout the sobering visuals.
The video arrives just days before President Elect Trump’s inauguration on January 20, with Billy Joe Armstrong’s words, “A new day dawning / Comes without warning / So don’t think twice / We live in troubled times,” ringing out loud and clear. The new video is a not-so-subtle reminder that America’s incoming president appears ready to set the U.S. back in time, stripping citizens of their rights and freedoms.
The new single is yet another example of Green Day taking on the incoming president. During their 2016 performance at the MTV EMAs, Green Day performed their 2004 single “American Idiot” and updated the lyrics to “subliminal mind-Trump America.”
A few days later at the American Music Awards, Armstrong changed the lyrics of the band’s song “Bang Bang” to include the rallying cry “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA,” a line originally penned by punk group MDC on their song, “Born To Die.”
Green Day released their twelfth studio album Revolution Road on October 7, 2016.
