Saves the World

After supporting English singer Harry Styles during his 2017–2018 tour, the band took a hiatus until lead singer Katie Gavin concocted the opening verse of the song "Number One Fan" six months later, starting the album's songwriting process.[11][12] According to guitarist Josette Maskin, the album title represents the band's belief that "saving yourself is the key to saving the world".[13] Maskin also said Saves the World was meant to evoke optimism in listeners.[14]

Saves the World is a pop,[8] alternative rock,[8] synth-rock,[10] indie pop,[15] synth-pop,[16] electropop,[10] and power pop[10] album, departing from the dark-pop of their debut.[17] Thematically autobiographical, Saves the World has been described as "an emotional excavation."[18] Its lyrics depict explorations of "addiction", "alienation", "romantic desolation", and "cycles of abusive behavior".[11] The band approached the album with the intention of crafting a minimalist sound, with musically shorter sentences in comparison to those in their first album.[14]

"Number One Fan" was released as the lead single from the album on June 7, 2019,[19] followed by the releases of "Who" and "Stayaway" on June 28 and August 16, respectively.[20][21] Saves the World was released on September 6, 2019.[3] Muna embarked on a tour within the United States from September to October 2019 in promotion of the album.[22]

Saves the World garnered "rave reviews" upon its release.[11] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album holds an average score of 82 based on eight reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[2]

In a perfect five-star review, Alexandra Pollard of The Independent asserted that Saves the World set up the band to joining "the ranks of those who have brazenly borrowed their sound".[6] Rolling Stone's Jonathan Bernstein awarded the album four stars out of five and praised its "concise and clever" yet "never overly precious" songwriting.[10] Writing for Pitchfork, Eve Barlow highlighted how the album was "as sentimental as it is versatile".[8] Marcy Donelson of AllMusic commented that while the album's lyrics were more effective than its hooks, it contained "a handful of low-key anthems".[3]

Saves the World placed on several critics' lists of the best albums of 2019. It was ranked as the 41st best by Billboard,[15] the 33rd by The Guardian,[16] the 15th by The Independent,[23] and included on an unranked list by Paper.[24]

All tracks are written by Muna.