Full disclosure, this may be the only Blink 182 record I have ever listened to in full. I know! What have I been doing for the other eight?! Not listening. Except for the singles that popped off on mainstream radio. Those, I heard. And they were great! But One More Time… seemed to hold some extra significance, so that’s why it made the cut.
Something else I’d like to bring up is that I didn’t totally enjoy their set at the When We Were Young Festival, even though it was my first time ever seeing the band live. I know! But I don’t regret leaving halfway through to catch all of Bowling for Soup. They were a blast. I also think I couldn’t enjoy the Blink set as much because I was standing probably a mile back from the stage. Everyone was there for Blink. But also, I know those guys don’t really sound all that great live vocally. That’s kind of a major part of any show.
All that to say, I enjoyed this new Blink record. For the most part anyway. With a nineteen song track list clocking in at fifty minutes, after a while some of the songs start to blur together. For me at least. I’m sure with repeated listens I’d learn to love and differentiate each track, but I cannot promise that it will ever happen again. Based on what I’d last heard from this band, which I believe was “Bored to Death,” this felt like more of a return to form, or back to basics for them. Of course I say that and the song “Fell in Love” very much reminded me of that California song, but still. Generally speaking, the record went back to the quick punk pop licks from the early days.
I don’t know that anything they ever do will really match that string of hits from the early 2000s for them, but I can see where the people in their 30s and 40s now are all in for this album. The opening track, “Anthem 3” of course goes straight for the jugular of nostalgia, and really, it slapped, so they were off to a good start. Most of the album keeps that quick tempo going, and songs like “More Than You Know” and “Turpentine” really stick the landing. They also manage to slow things down with “One More Time” and “You Don’t Know,” but those will never ever come close to the greatness of “I Miss You.”
Other songs worth checking out on the album for their uniqueness include “Blink Wave” and “Childhood.” The latter sounds like something out of an arcade dream, where the former has a really cool synth sound to it, almost reminding me a bit of The Cure. There’s certainly lots to like here, and god knows you’ve got plenty of tracks to pick from, but overall this was just an okay record for me. Good, but not great. I’m glad I listened and glad I got to experience a little bit of them live, but I’ve done enough with them this round. To all the diehard fans out there, I guarantee this one is for you, so don’t be scared to check out the new stuff.