Cigarettes and Valentines

Cigarettes and Valentines is an unreleased studio album by American punk rock band Green Day. The album would have been the follow-up to Warning (2000).[1] In 2003, the album was nearly finished when the master tapes were mysteriously stolen from the band's studio.[2] Instead of re-recording the album, the band decided to start from scratch, leading to the creation of American Idiot (2004). They were able to locate and recover the material, and then decided to rework some of the original tracks and release them as B-sides to the singles from American Idiot. Some of the tracks were re-recorded for their eleventh studio album ¡Tré!.

Cigarettes and Valentines
Studio album unreleased by
Green Day
ReleasedCancelled; intended for 2003
RecordedJuly–October 2002
StudioStudio 880 in Oakland, California
Genre
LabelReprise
ProducerRob Cavallo
Green Day chronology
Warning
(2000)		 Cigarettes and Valentines
(2003)		 American Idiot
(2004)

In an interview with NME on November 18, 2016,[3] Armstrong and Dirnt stated that the master tapes are being used for new songs. As of 2020, there are no plans to release the original album.

History

Lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong said the album's material was "good stuff".[4] Musically, the material on Cigarettes and Valentines was hard, "quick-tempoed punk" songs in the vein of Green Day's Kerplunk and Insomniac.[5] This sound would have contrasted the group's previous two studio albums, Nimrod and Warning, which displayed more rock and folk punk genres respectively. Bassist Mike Dirnt described the band's decision of returning to the sound found on their older albums, stating, "We've had a nice break from making hard and fast music and it's made us want to do it again."[5] However, Green Day would later call the theft a "blessing in disguise",[6] believing the album wasn't "maximum Green Day".[4] Dirnt admitted that backups of the tapes were made but claims that "it just wasn't the same as the originals". Cigarettes and Valentines was never even roughly mixed, according to various interviews with the band.

The Network's album Money Money 2020, released on September 30, 2003, through Billie Joe Armstrong's Adeline Records, was speculated by some fans as being a re-recording of the album, or to contain aspects of it. Armstrong has denied any connection between the two projects in various interviews.[5]

Live performances and other appearances

The title song, "Cigarettes and Valentines" was first played live at the concert in Greenwood Village, Colorado on August 28, 2010, during the band's concert at the Comfort Dental Amphitheatre while on their 21st Century Breakdown World Tour.[7] This show was being filmed to eventually contribute to a forthcoming live album, leading to speculation that some of the songs from the Cigarettes and Valentines sessions would eventually be released.[7][8]

"Cigarettes and Valentines" saw an official release on Awesome as Fuck. "Too Much Too Soon", a B-side on the "American Idiot" single, was a track originally from Cigarettes and Valentines. On February 14, 2011, the official lyric video for the song was released on Green Day's official YouTube channel. Four days later, the official video for the song was released there as well. A live promo single was released on February 21, 2011 containing 2:43 of the performance in Phoenix, Arizona (the shots of the crowd are from the concert in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

References
  1. "Lost Music: Green Day's Stolen Album, Kurt's Demos and Other Mythical Masterpieces". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2010-10-03.
  2. Hlavaty, Craig (June 14, 2007). "Lost Albums: CDs that deserve another listen". Houston Press. Retrieved August 31, 2010.
  3. Trendell, Andrew (November 18, 2016). "Green Day reveal the fate of 'lost' pre-'American Idiot' album 'Cigarettes And Valentines'". NME. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
  4. "Wanna Hear The Lost VU Record?". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2009-02-18. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
  5. Spitz, Marc (2006). Nobody Likes You: Inside the Turbulent Life, Times, and Music of Green Day. New York: Hyperion. pp. 152–156. ISBN 1-4013-0274-2.
  6. "Top 10 Albums You've Never Heard". Yes But No But Yes. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
  7. Paul, Aubin (August 30, 2010). "Videos: Green Day: "Cigarettes and Valentines"". Punknews.org. Retrieved August 30, 2010.
  8. Reilly, Dan (August 31, 2010). "Green Day Recording Live Album, Perform New Song". Spinner. AOL Music. Retrieved August 31, 2010.
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