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.^[12][13] According to guitarist Josette Maskin, the album title represents the band's belief that "saving yourself is the key to saving the world".^[14] Maskin also said Saves the World was meant to evoke optimism in listeners.^[15]

Saves the World is a pop,^[16] alternative rock,^[16] synth-rock,^[17] indie pop,^[18] synth-pop,^[19] electropop,^[17] alt-pop,^[20] and power pop^[17] album. Thematically autobiographical, Saves the World has been described as "an emotional excavation."^[21] Its lyrics depict explorations of "addiction", "alienation", "romantic desolation", and "cycles of abusive behavior".^[12] 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.^[15]

"Number One Fan" was released as the lead single from the album on June 7, 2019,^[22] followed by the releases of "Who" and "Stayaway" on June 28 and August 16, respectively.^[23][24] 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.^[25]

Saves the World garnered "rave reviews" upon its release.^[12] 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".^[26] In the same vein, Abigail Firth of Dork praised that the album "is tears under the disco ball at its finest" and "a more honest and grown-up version of the MUNA we know". Rolling Stone's Jonathan Bernstein awarded the album four stars out of five and praised its "concise and clever" yet "never overly precious" songwriting.^[17] Writing for Pitchfork, Eve Barlow highlighted how the album was "as sentimental as it is versatile".^[16] 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,^[18] the 33rd by The Guardian,^[19] the 15th by The Independent^[27] and included on an unranked list by Paper.^[28]

All lyrics: © 2019 Katie Gavin. All music is composed by Josette Maskin, Gavin & Naomi McPherson.^[29][30]

MUNA:

• Katie Gavin - Vocals, Piano ("Grow").
• Josette Maskin - Backing Vocals, Guitars.
• Naomi McPherson - Backing Vocals, Guitars, Synthesizers, Piano ("Grow"), Mandolin ("Taken").

Guest Musicians (except for "Grow", "Taken", "Memento" & "It's Gonna Be Okay, Baby"):

• Brian Robert Jones - Bass.
• Scott Heiner - Drums, Percussions.

"Grow" also contains additional programming by Mike Crossey.