Green Day released ¡Dos! in Australia on November 9, 2012, through Reprise Records. Their tenth studio album occupied the middle of the ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tré! trilogy, with a garage-rock focus that drew on the band's Foxboro Hot Tubs side project. The UK release followed on November 12 and the US release on November 13.
The trilogy grew out of a decision to leave behind the linked narratives of American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown. Billie Joe Armstrong told Guitar World in 2012 that he wanted to “treat each song individually.” He had been writing in a small apartment studio while appearing in the Broadway production of American Idiot. Once the band began arranging the material back in Oakland, the volume of songs pushed them toward three separate releases.
That reset extended to the recordings. At Jingletown in Oakland, producer Rob Cavallo encouraged Green Day to capture the feel of playing together in their rehearsal room. Guitarist Jason White joined the sessions, with his rhythm parts placed on the right and Armstrong's on the left. Armstrong described his own playing as more percussive and White's as smoother. He also wanted cleaner guitar tones and room microphones that could capture the sound of the amplifiers moving air.
¡Dos! doesn't open at full volume. “See You Tonight” begins with acoustic guitar and close harmonies before “Fuck Time” turns up the amps. That second track had already been performed under the Foxboro Hot Tubs name, making the connection more than a stylistic comparison. The standard album fitted 13 tracks into roughly 39 minutes, with room for several departures from a straight run of fast punk songs.
“Stray Heart,” the lead single, put a prominent bass line and a pop hook at the center of that approach. Its official music video, directed by Roboshobo, arrived ahead of the album. “Nightlife” took another route, adding guest rapping from Lady Cobra to the record's mix of guitar rock and melody.
The closing “Amy” changes the mood again. Armstrong wrote it in tribute to Amy Winehouse, although he had never met her. In a July 2012 interview with NME, he explained how much he admired her connection to older soul music and how strongly he felt that loss. He described the song's position at the end of ¡Dos! as “the consequences of the party.” After the album's louder, more unruly songs, the tribute leaves grief as its final subject.
Armstrong also told Guitar World that “Amy” helped lead him to “Brutal Love,” the opening track on ¡Tré!. The closing song on one record became a starting point for the next.
Green Day returned to the trilogy's material with Demolicious, released for Record Store Day on April 19, 2014. The 18-track collection presented demos from the project, including “Stray Heart,” “Ashley,” “Baby Eyes” and “Makeout Party.” Alongside those alternate recordings, it included the previously unreleased “State of Shock” and an acoustic version of “Stay the Night.”
