10 Greatest Hard Rock Songs (Without Vocals)

Pop Punk as a genre doesn't really lend itself to instrumental work all that often. Given that there is a pop connotation right there in the title, virtually no song has climbed to the top of the charts without having a hook to sing along to. Then again, Green Day were looking to move past pop punk altogether on Nimrod.

Instead of the massive singles you got from something like Dookie, this record has a lot of left field turns into hardcore, classic rock, and even acoustic ballads on the colossal graduation song Good Riddance. At the same time, the most oblique left turn comes with Last Ride In, which feels like the soundtrack to a day at the beach. As Billie Joe Armstrong breaks out the surf guitars, most of the song plods along on the strength of Mike Dirnt's bass, as you float out to sea with every single riff that passes by.

In fact, most of this song shows Green Day going into a heavy ska direction, with the incorporation of horns being a good look for this kind of easygoing track. That's not where the instrumentals end for Green Day though, with Espionage being the spy thriller cut they used for Austin Powers 2 just a few years later. While this song might not have the same radio-friendly vibe as something like Basket Case, it serves as a nice cooldown from all the other harsh tracks you get out of pop punk.