What’s Their Age Again?

It’s great to hear a band mature and the boys from Blink 182 have done some growing up over the years. Their latest album Neighborhoods gives listeners the idea that they’ve each gone through some serious shit during their hiatus and this has, for better or worse, given the album a grittier, darker overall vibe. Lyrically, they’ve left out the toilet humor, but they might’ve also left out the humor entirely. This album is truly a labor of love, or maybe even lost, or failed love. No doubt, pockets of people will say that they should’ve maybe hung out a bit more; maybe got a bit high and rediscovered their chemistry again before deciding collectively where they wanted to go. Maybe this would’ve made them sound a lot less sullen on the album.

Going by the lyrical content people might wonder whether they might just depress the shit out of kids if they play the new stuff live? Maybe not if they only play some of these to punctuate sets that are dominated by songs from their earlier albums. So they’ve taken a few bullets and aren’t singing about fart jokes and beer pong beer bong parties. But then again isn’t that just the way life goes? There’s no snot on this album. On this disc they’ve just expanded the whole vibe of their track Stay Together For the Kids…dark, melancholic and tearful. The guys all live in the same city, but they’ve definitely been to different neighborhoods during their hiatus.

Old school fans would wonder what the meaning of keyboards are on an opening track of a Blink 182 album as in the track Ghosts on the Dancefloor. In fact, if they’ve grown up with the band, they might appreciate the variety and new musical ideas. When the haters give up on living in the past, they could possibly understand that maybe this is what pop punk is supposed to sound like on its path of evolution. Green guitarist and co-lead vocalist Tom has definitely aged, but the Blink still sounds mostly the same. The opening track itself showcases Travis Barker’s penchant for enduring percussive awesomeness, a talent that is on show on every task.

Co-lead vocalist and bassist Mark Hoppus does an amazing job of putting the clock to shame with his vocal contributions as evidenced in the track Natives. The track’s themes of paranoia, loneliness, separation and death reflect that indeed some rites of passage did take place during the band’s downtime. Up All Night takes listeners down an intro of interesting warped distortion with the mandatory pop punk sensibilities. What’s this? Lyrics dealing with a guilty conscience raising kids, struggle, demons and death? Consider this a warning about a heady and beautifully distorted outro.

There is precious little proof that combats the cliché that drummers are just strong-armed imbeciles that have no melodic inclinations. Barker’s ownership of his drumkit on the track After Midnight does its bit to refute several unfair stabs. Tom chose an interesting approach to writing the verse part of  Snake Charmer. The track, including its meandering into different genres, is a fine example of making inventive use of musical elements from outside one’s comfort zone to great effect. The Heart’s All Gone interlude separates sides A and B of the album and could be considered as a blueprint of the majority of their song structures sans lyrics and hybrid mutant-human drummer. The actual track’s straightforward, blistering approach and somewhat defenceless and self-disparaging lyrics aren’t a let down at all.

Wishing Well is a throwback to the Blink of bygone decades with some added non-words for some sing-along temptation. While lyrics such as “Play me something I can dance to,” wouldn’t be entirely out of place on an earlier Blink disc, their place on the track Kaleidoscope could easily make listeners question what the band members’ ages are. Tom’s decision to syncopate parts of This is Home could easily earn the band non-English-speaking fans. You can almost imagine some young French high school girl bobbing along if her eardrums haven’t been plagued with too much radio-programmed garbage.

Mh 4-18-2011 could possibly be the album’s most upbeat-sounding track on the disc, but hark! There’s some prophecy of bearable turbulence in the chorus. Imitation is the highest form of flattery and the Blink has taken a page out of the Alkaline Trio songbook with their work on Love Is Dangerous. It almost felt like the 80s. If a blind Blink fan were to listen to the opening bars of Fighting the Gravity, he might believe he was listening to someone else entirely. The pacing, harder and edgier sound could be likened, musically, to something a bit like mid-career Incubus. Album closer Even if She Falls has an abrupt ending and in that regard is reminiscent of Anthem, the closer from Enema of the State.  Not the most jaw-dropping end to a disc, but far from the worst thing the Blink has ever commited to tape.

It would seem that the Blink is still pretty rock and roll simply because they’re sticking to their guns and bravely being themselves without going the dubstep route. Blink 182’s Neighborhoods wont take you back to the American Pie days in the blink of an eye, but the slow-burn vibe of this album wont entirely disappoint either.