The Wonder Years Release New Version of “Washington Square Park"

Pennsylvania’s the Wonder Years are one of pop-punk’s most respected names, having put out six full-length albums packed with heartfelt, coming-of-age jams. Now, the band has announced the release of a new version of fan-favorite “Washington Square Park,” taken from 2010’s epic The Upsides.

The song is part of the Wonder Year’s new EP, Burst & Decay Voume II, which is out Feb. 14 via Hopeless Records. You can listen to their new take on “Washington Square Park” below.

Moreover, in a lengthy social media post the band has revealed they’ll be performing The Upsides in full at this year’s Slam Dunk Festival, which is May 23 to 24 in Leeds and Hatfield, U.K., and will also feature sets from the likes of Sum 41, State Champs and the Used.

Looking back on the period during which The Upsides was written and explaining their reasons for playing it in full at Slam Dunk, vocalist Dan ‘Soupy’ Campbell stated:

“Ten years ago today we released a record that shifted the course of our lives forever. There’s no real way to quantify what The Upsides did for us personally or as a band. It’s not like a few things changed. Everything changed and we honestly haven’t entirely decided how to best honour that but we figured we have all year to figure it out. For now, though, we do have two things planned:

“First, right now, you can hear the version of Washington Square Park that appears on Burst & Decay (Vol. II). WSP was the first song we released from The Upsides. It was the song that started the groundswell and so it feels appropriate to release this new look at the song on the 10th anniversary. This is our consensus favourite song on the EP. We had such a fun time figuring out a new lens to view it through. The challenge with any of these is how to subvert expectation while still remaining true to what made the song resonate in the first place. With the help of Ace and Nik at Lumberyard, we think we did just that and we hope you love it.

“The second thing we’re going to do is play the record in full at Slam Dunk festival this year. Ten years ago at Slam Dunk in 2010 we played two sets that felt surreal and impossible–an exercise in pure joy. There was no “made it” moment in our career; no defining point when some bigwig label president heard our song and told us we were gonna be stars or something but SD2010 was emotionally that moment for us. So, we felt like there was no better place to play the record in full. We weren’t (and I guess still aren’t) sure that people want to hear the record in full live in 2020 so Slam Dunk will be the test. If it feels good, if the energy is there, then maybe we’ll start planning to do the record in more places before the year is out.

“For now, we find ourselves in a familiar place: a place to say thank you. Thank you to The Upsides. Thank you to the people that listened to it. Thank you to everyone that got the words tattooed on their bodies or carved them into their hearts. Thank you for letting it resonate with you.”

To support the release of Burst & Decay Voume II, the Wonder Years will tour America from Feb. 20 through to March 20, before heading to the U.K. for Slam Dunk. Support for the U.S. tour comes from Free Throw, Pool Kids and Spanish Love Songs.

The Wonder Years, “Washington Square Park” Lyrics

I'm looking for the upsides to these panic-attack nights

Where I'm staying in eating take-out food by TV light
And I'm trying to play the b-side to this awkward life of mine
You could flip me over. I'd sing a few lines about how

I'm so used to shooting myself in the kneecaps
Standing in the way of progress or letting down my friends

I'm nailing shards of hope together
To put something over my head
You know here it's always raining
And it happened again. It happened again
She said, "I let this slide when we were younger
You know you don't have to write like this
The whole world's full of losers
If you get a chance to win, you should take it"

I stood on the roof with Matt and Molly
I watched the gray slide off the city
It's finally spring
We rode our bikes over to 6th Street
To Washington Square Park
To see if the tides would turn for me
And they did

I left a lot of blood in California
On our first trip out west
I was younger and restless back then
And I thought, if no one's in my corner
Since everyone left
I'd better make it worth it

I left a lot of blood in California
On our first trip out west
I was younger and restless

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