‘They haven’t made anything good since Dookie.’ If I had a dime for every time I heard this ignorant trope of the musically stunted I would buy even more Manchester United attire. Not only is this statement untrue, it is laughable in its simplistic absurdity. The Dookie album was no doubt one of the highlights of the 90s with unforgettable classics like, ‘Basket Case’ ‘When I Come Around’ and ‘Welcome to Paradise’ among others. However, one album does not a great band make.

If you need any further testament to the fact that Green Day is in fact a great band, please allow me to evangelize. In 2004, mathematically ten years after Dookie and disproving idiotic claims, ‘American Idiot’ was released to be one of the first seminal albums to Millennials. I was in high school at the time, and this thing was everywhere, uniting all manner of youth across clique lines and something that was palpable socially in a way that only music can be.

For context, it was released in September leading up to the 2004 Bush/Kerry election, and in addition to being a generation defining album it was also one of our first protest statements. The title track screams: ‘Don’t wanna be an American idiot, don’t want a nation under the new media!’ This couldn’t have been more pertinent at the time when Fox News was exploding with Bill O’Riley leading the nauseating march to bring America back to the 1950s Levittown he grew up in. Ah, Levittown, a Long Island residential community with a clause allowing occupancy only to members of the caucasian race.

The title track was amazing, but where this album got its teeth was when ‘Holiday’ became our generation’s ‘Fortunate Son.’ ‘Oh I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies, this is the dawning of the rest of our lives, on holiday!’ With Iraq and Afghanistan flooding every television moment this song spoke to the collective rage against Bush’s flag waving, stay the course, post 9/11 hysteria. I hope George can live with himself, it’s nice that he’s painting now, just like Hitler did.

‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’ was another classic that didn’t seem to get old despite radio overplay. I attribute its success to the fact that it is the same chord progression as Oasis’ ‘Wonderwall.’ This was something that Noel Gallagher pointed out jokingly in an interview at the time, but was spot on. The next time you hear someone disparage Green Day for whatever reason, please make a point to tell them ‘Good Riddance.’