Instead of releasing Cigarettes and Valentines, the band decided to make an album with those additional songs, which led to the creation of American Idiot (2004).
[5] In an interview the band did on New York radio station Q104.3 on March 28, 2010, Green Day confirmed "Too Much Too Soon", a bonus track of American Idiot, was originally a song recorded during the Cigarettes and Valentines sessions.
On February 26, 2011, bassist Mike Dirnt confirmed three other song titles that were originally recorded for the album: "Dropout", "Sleepyhead", and "Walk Away".
[7] Musically, the material on Cigarettes and Valentines was hard, "quick-tempoed punk" songs in the vein of Green Day's Kerplunk (1991), and Insomniac (1995).
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.
[8] The title song, "Cigarettes and Valentines", was first played live 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.