This is an instant 10/10 for me. "American Idiot" and "The Black Parade" are the two defining albums of my childhood. It was the first CD I ever owned and I listened to it constantly. I could go ten years without listening to it and still know every word. This album was an on-ramp not only to Green Day's older and punkier albums, but the entire world of punk music in general. My parent's friend, Kevin Meeten, heard that I was obsessed with Green Day and showed up at my house with their entire discography burned onto CDs, album covers printed out in low resolution and put inside cheap plastic CD cases. I'm not sure I even knew they had other albums prior to that moment, but they quickly became valuable currency among my friends. I would bring them around to the many houses and we'd listen to them, our minds being blown by "Dookie" and "Nimrod". This was my first introduction to music snobbery, and I was the culprit. Oh, you've only listened to American Idiot? I love basically every song on this album. I went through phases with it, each section of the album becoming my favorite for a few months at a time. I'd listen to just the first four songs on repeat, then get bored of them and realize the next four were just as good. At this point in time, I think "Homecoming" and "Whatshername" are my favorite songs. The live album of the American Idiot Tour, "Bullet In A Bible", came with a concert DVD that shared equal time inside my DVD Player with "Return of the King". I watched it on repeat and put so much pressure on my parents that I went to Green Day as my first concert a year later. It rocked. This isn't Green Day's best album, but it is definitely their most important album for me. The political angles of the album may have influenced me a lot, and unfortunately ring just as true twenty years later. I have no complaints about this album whatsoever. It fucking rocks, it changed music for me. 10/10