B y Luke Dailey
Blink-182 – Neighborhoods
Yeah, seriously. Blink’s announcement that they were reforming and working on new album a couple years back was a bizarre piece of news for folks who passed their adolescence jamming to ‘What’s My Age Again’ and ‘Dammit’. The impulse not that they’ve finally finished the damn things is, more or less: shake your head, laugh an ironic, cultured laugh, and say, “Those guys are still making music? Seriously?”
Which, of course, is shameful self-deception of the highest order: once you’ve got a taste for the stuff, it’s in your blood forever. Pop-punk for life, even if it’s not the Radiant Center of the musical universe it once was.The question, then, is between the affected post-teen-years-snootiness and undeniable nostalgia-driven-anticipation, how does the album actually up. Honestly? Not bad at all. That’s not to say you don’t get what you expect. Straightforward, heart-on-your-sleeve lyrics (mostly), fast, driven 3-4 minute songs, catchy-but-simple power chord riffs; it’s been given a new coat of paint and aesthetically expanded a little, but this is more-or-less the same pop-punk of Blink yore.
Thing is, you don’t only get what you expect: these guys are in their 40’s now, so it’s not that surprising that there’s a complete lack of dick jokes and their ilk on this one (phew). In its place are songs that ape at (and sometimes, though not always, reach) a newfound maturity. Blink takes on themes of growing old, depression, heartbreak (whoa, stunning), isolation, and addiction on here; Hoppus churns out a few memorable lines, DeLonge a few less, but all in all it’s engaging enough to entertain, if not always excite. There are a couple songs that are classic Blink; others really strive to stake out new sonic territory and actually do a pretty decent job. Twenty years into their career, the band’s finally growing up and doing some artistic exploring.
There’s nothing life changing here, but nothing ridicule-worthy (see: Limp Bizkit’s incredibly horrific“comeback” album). If you’re familiar with Blink’s then-final 2003 album, they more or less picked up where they left off. So, not the nostalgia fest you might expect, but not an artistically-vapid contrived cash-in, either. No matter how facile or familiar the songs might feel, you genuinely get the sense these guys love what they do, which goes a long way to making this a really fun album.
Mark Hoppus sounds like he always did, Tom DeLonge is actually (sometimes) less whiny, and Travis Barker’s drumming is as phenomenal as always—toss some decent songwriting, earnest guitarwork, and a more mature aesthetic and you’ve got an album totally worth checking out.
8/10 Arbitrary Review Metrics; 9/10 if you grew up a Blink fan.
At Least Listen To: Kaleidoscope; Mh 4.18.2011; Natives
