The last time we saw Green Day in a music video, they were robbing a bank—or rather, a trio of robbers disguised as the legendary pop-punk band did the deed—and playing a raucous house show in the clip for “Bang Bang.” This time around, in their new music video for “Still Breathing,” the third single from Revolution Radio, their twelfth album that was released last month, it’s a decidedly more tranquil and emotional affair.
Billie Joe Armstrong plays a sad/reflective version of himself, driving his car, walking through gritty urban scenes, all alone and all in grayed-out color. Contemporaneously, his exploits are interspersed with scenes of an elderly woman looking at photos of her growing family on her phone, a guy climbing a mountain, a leaf floating in water… stuff that matches the song’s lyrical tone, an inspiration ditty about overcoming adversity and staying strong: “I’m like a soldier coming home for the first time / I dodged a bullet and I walked across a landmine / Oh I’m still alive.” In the end, he finds the rest of Green Day performing in a warehouse, and presumably, he also finds himself.This isn’t Armstrong’s first foray into the melodramatic in recent times: He recently appeared as the lead in his first starring film role, as a sort of less successful version of a guy very similar to himself in Ordinary World, a movie in which he contemplates his stagnating life on his birthday (and also, Fred Armisen is in it). We thought it was a decent vehicle for Armstrong, so check out our review of the film here.
Featured image: Green Day
