Philadelphia’s The Wonder Years return full force with the release of their new song, ‘Oldest Daughter.’ They kicked 2022 off with a near-entirely sold-out headlining tour, one that found them celebrating two of their most beloved records: 2010’s ‘The Upsides’ and 2011’s ‘Suburbia I’ve Given You All and Now I’m Nothin.’
On another discography standout album, 2013’s ‘The Greatest Generation,’ vocalist Dan Campbell sings of alcoholism and the “bitter and vitriolic” trappings of the east coast winter in a song called ‘Madelyn.’ Nearly a decade later, Oldest Daughter’ picks up where that song left off. The energy here is much different but the ending remains unfortunately the same.
“It’s about coming to the understanding that you can’t save everyone,” Dan explains. “There are going to be people you love who will destroy themselves no matter how badly you want them to stop.”
Every release from The Wonder Years finds the band pushing the limits of their sound, but this song truly feels like they’re pulling from all the best parts. Produced by Steve Evetts (the same producer who worked on ‘Suburbia…’ and ‘The Greatest Generation’) over the course of late summer 2021, ‘Oldest Daughter’ was first tracked live at the Foo Fighters‘ Studio 606 and later finalized at Evett‘s former studio in Garden Grove, California.