#oh and i strongly suggest listening to those 2012 Green Day songs i mentioned

[eragonpaolini]

ugh that moment in restless heart syndrome where it goes "i am my own worst enemy.... know your enemy" and then the solo kicks in????? i fuckin FELT that bro

sorry it took so long to get to this i was just listening to the song on repeat for 6 hours

but yeah

I’d never really listened to the entire album (cause it’s over an hour long); I’d only listen to the “21st Century Breakdown”, “Know Your Enemy”, and “21 Guns” (basically the title track plus the singles that actually found radio airplay in the US)*. I finally found time to listen to the whole thing on the 14 hour flight from Dubai to Seattle last summer... and wow. “East Jesus Nowhere” came on and I thought “hey this a really good song”. And then the whole 5-song build-up from EJN to “¿Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl)” was fantastic. Then “Restless Heart Syndrome” came on and I basically fell in love with it immediately. The way the piano at the intro echoes the opening acoustic guitar from “Little Girl”? Stellar! But then I honestly felt so cheated, so ROBBED when the solo didn’t start right at the end of the first chorus. I thought “they better have a fucking KILLER solo after the next chorus.” And they did. And it was glorious. It’s like the promise they made at the end of the first chorus was fulfilled, like getting to see someone you missed after years apart. And then it’s followed by this fantastic outro, with those last 5 chords sounding like it needs to be accompanied by a video of someone pounding on a wall in frustration/heartbreak. Honestly, just imagining that with the outro of this song is a great way to let off steam. 

And the worst part was I couldn’t even headbang too hard. I was sitting on a tight airline seat, with my mom asleep next to me, and a random guy who, over the course of the flight so far (maybe 4 hours in), had drank about eight (8) of those little liquor bottles they sell on planes. And he continued to drink more until he fell asleep for the last 8 hours of the flight. 

Anyway, my point is this song is severely underappreciated (probably overshadowed by “21 Guns”). Also, “Mass Hysteria” makes a very strong case for Billie Joe and Mike Dirnt to share the “lead singer” role of the band more often. As a side note, Green Day’s trio of albums from 2012 are also quite underappreciated. “Kill the DJ”, “Stray Heart”, and “Ashley” are all gifts and “Nightlife” sounds like if Green Day made an Arctic Monkeys song for AM. 

* When I looked up the singles for the album, the Wiki page for for “21st Century Breakdown” (the title track, not 21st Century Breakdown, the album) said the music video was directed by Marc Webb. I thought “No way. The Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movies director Marc Webb?” (which I only know because it’s a shitty pun). But it is. That’s him. You know what else he’s done? Fuckin’ MCR’s “Helena” and “Ghost of You” (among other MCR songs). He did the video for “Bad Day” by Daniel Powter. He did “Move Along” and “Gives You Hell” by The All-American Rejects. “Harder to Breathe” by Maroon 5. “Call Me When You’re Sober” by Evanescence. “I Don’t Want To Be” by Gavin DeGraw. “Boyfriend” by Ashlee Simpson. “Ocean Avenue” by Yellowcard. Guy directed basically every pop/rock song of the early 2000′s I cared to look up on YouTube** (which was really new at the time and Vevo wasn’t a thing so all the music videos were technically “illegal”), because we didn’t have cable for MTV back when there was music on there. 

** I say I looked up the videos on YouTube but really I made my brother look them up for me (because I was a small child and still didn’t really know how to use YouTube/the internet) and he’d give me a hard time because he didn’t like that kind of music, but he’d give in eventually... God this turned into a nostalgia post didn’t it? I’m just gonna end it here