“Parking Lot‰” is the best song blink-182 has put out. Not just of their recent releases, but ever. Better than “ All the Small Things;‰” better than “ What‰’s My Age Again?‰” and “ Feeling This.‰” I remember being rather generally underwhelmed by California, but when I saw that they dropped a single from the deluxe edition of the record (due out in May) I figured I would give it a shot. And I am glad that I did. It‰’s still kind of weird without Tom DeLonge, but I‰’ll soon discuss why I believe this is their best song.

The first time I listened to “Parking Lot‰” I was laying in my bed, decompressing from my flight back from my spring break destination and the Chef Geoff‰’s supermug I had just downed (I needed it after the stress of running across the Atlanta airport to get to my connecting flight). I‰’m pretty sure I listened to it at least 10 times and, after realizing the genius of quoting Joni Mitchell‰’s “Big Yellow Taxi,‰” fired off a tweet that I clearly still stand by:

Okay so “Parking Lot” may be the best song Blink-182 ever put out.

‰ÛÓ Jonathan Skufca (@JSkuf) March 17, 2017

At the time, I wasn‰’t exactly quite sure why, but as I kept listening to it, I kept feeling nostalgic for a time that never existed in my life. I grew up in a poor town in  central-western Pennsylvania , where my most outrageous evening activity consisted of going to Sheetz or Eat ‰n‰’ Park after late night marching band rehearsals. I didn‰’t have the time to “waste the best nights of [my] life‰” under anything but either football stadium lights or the dim lights of an elementary school gym as indoor drumline season rolled around. But still, the sincerity of what Matt Skiba and Mark Hoppus are singing make me wonder—take high school me and move him to a place with more opportunities to enjoy himself. How different would my current life be? Would I be studying the same things at school? Would I even be at the same school? Coming to DC for school was a way for me to escape what I felt at the time were the chains of my hometown. Fate is an interesting beast, isn‰’t she?

But enough existential dread for now. Something I have recently been noticing with pop-punk music, as it has generally fallen out of the major public light—remember the early 2000‰’s when you couldn‰’t turn on the radio without hearing a Fall Out Boy, All-American Rejects, or even a blink-182 song?—has become increasingly focused on the concept of nostalgia. As famous albums turn ten or even fifteen years old, the bands embark on anniversary tours, and the crowds that are drawn are incredible and incredibly diverse in regards to age. I remember attending a show on Say Anything‰’s å_ …is a Real Boy 10^th anniversary tour, and peppered among the college students were men and women well in their 30s who probably wouldn‰’t be caught dead at a high-energy punk show, screaming along to Max Bemis‰’s immature lyrics.

In addition, take the music video for blink-182‰’s “She‰’s Out of Her Mind ,‰” the song that I could not escape last winter break. It is a gender-swapped near shot-for-shot recreation of the famous video for “What‰’s My Age Again?‰” hand-crafted to trigger nostalgia in people that may not have listened to blink-182 since 1999. It seems intended to make people go “They‰’re still making music?‰” and fire up their streaming service of choice and listen to either their old favorites or some new material. An,d as someone studying to work in the music industry, it‰’s genius.

“Parking Lot‰” is the best blink-182 song because there are people to whom blink-182 is as Naked Raygun is to Matt Skiba. The band they remember wasting their nights listening to. For remembering when they were goofballs who would “roll [their] ankle‰” or “break [their] wrist.‰” And “Parking Lot‰” triggers those emotions so well that I, who didn‰’t do much goofy stuff felt the nostalgia.