What's to say about Blink 182 that hasn't already been said? I mean in the late 90's and early 2000's, they were easily one of the cooler bands in the world pumping out great Pop Punk albums constantly. With the release of their self titled album in the mid 2000's, they started getting a mixed reaction from their longtime fans. I still don't really get that, I thought their self titled was pretty solid, some low moments here and there but overall it was solid. Then there was the first breakup of Blink, only for them to come back and reunite for 2011's "Neighborhoods". Outside of a single here and there, I really wasn't a fan. Now here we are, 5 years later. Tom DeLonge has since left Blink 182. and has been replace with Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba (which I honestly had no idea of until about 2 weeks ago). Now I'm a huge fan of Skiba, and on top of that I heard that John Feldman of Goldfinger was producing this, so far I was pretty interested. Let's see how the rest of this album pans out.
First off we have "Cynical". There's no fancy intro, not even close, we just go directly in to Mark Hoppus's verse, to be honest it really doesn't sound like he's aged that much at all since the last time we've heard from Blink. At first listen, Mark And Matt's vocal harmonies seem a little awkward, they do get better throughout the album but here they just seem a bit forced. Not only that, you just kinda expect Mark and Tom's harmonies, so it take a bit of getting used to. I feel though like Matt's getting the short end of the stick though. I mean for the most part, he dived right into this band out of nowhere and adapted to their sound very quickly. On top of all of that, they give him quite a bit of time on the mic, you're going to get used to him quick. Travis Barker hasn't lost a single bit of his energy which is a huge plus. Now, I'm not too crazy about the verses here, but Mark and Matt come together and pull off a solid chorus, a running theme of the album. "Cynical" at the end of the day though is a huge double edged sword for me. I'm happy that it's on the shorter side, because I wasn't into those verses at all. On the other hand, I feel like it barely got started. Up next we have "Bored To Death", one of the first tracks released from the album. That intro literally sounds like something a Blink 182 cover band would pull off. Actually, it sounds like Blink 182 trying way too hard to be themselves. As the track continues, it sounds more and more like a +44 song (+44 being the side project of Blink 182's Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker). And that's not really too shocking, Mark's the star of this one big time. The verses have tons of cliche's but for the most part isn't too bad, atleast not nearly as bad as that pre-chorus (That's just depressingly bad). However, the chorus itself really picks up a lot of slack and just is already catchier than anything on Blink 182's last album. Overall "Bored to Death" is a solid single, but my problem with a lot of these tracks is just how short of breath they are. These tracks often have a solid structure and have all the basics down, but just feel so unfinished, this one isn't a bad track at all though. But hell, there are a few really solid tracks on here. Take "Los Angeles" for example. The intro on this track is almost dark sounding, and is easily the coolest and most unique intro on the entire album. It's still not on the same level as say their old stuff, but this is definitely more their speed. Here, Mark, Matt, and Travis (which still is weird for me to say...) sound rejuvenated and energetic. Occasionally Travis's drums sound a little tinny, but I'm willing to overlook it. Yes, the post chorus is a little cheesy, but overall I have no real problems with "Los Angeles", I think it's a solid tune. Later on in the album we have "Kings of the Weekend", which instrumentally right from the start is pretty solid. It has easily one of the better riffs your going to here on the album, and Travis's drums are sounding great as well. As far as the vocals go, Mark here doesn't sound like her clambering to hold on to his younger years. Sure, it has it's cheesy moments here and there, but it's absolutely not as "desperate to be cool" as other tracks I've heard from them in recent years. If you can get past a few goofy moments here and there, you'll see one of the few moments here where this new lineup of Blink 182 are a complete unit. "Rabbit Hole" later on in the album has it's ups and downs. As far as aggression goes this is the easily a highlight of the entire album. Most of the tracks here feel pretty tame for Pop Punk tunes, but "Rabbit Hole" is easily one of the most punk moments here. This is one of the few tracks here that I feel like the verses do a great job of building up the chorus. Sadly though, the chorus here is just about the flattest chorus on the entire album. And that's a real shame, because everything else here is Punk as hell.
Oh boy, well boys and girls I got just about everything I loved out of the way, and you know what time it is. It's time for go on a nice long list of grievances, and boy do I have a few. Lets start with "She's Out Of Her Mind", nice and early in the album. It starts off pretty straightforward with some punky bass, instrumentally they honestly sound right where I want them to be. But as soon as those verses start, oh my dear God. These are Blink verses that would have been acceptable when they were goofy teenagers, maybe. But now that they're all in their 40's, it's just bizarre. I kinda almost feel sorry for Blink, it's definitely harder for them to make relevant, fun pop punk this late into their career. I mean the most exciting thing here is Matt Skiba's vocals on the chorus, his contributions are some of the most "Punk" things I've heard so far. As far as Matt Skiba's verse here, it's solid, more so than Mark, at least on this one. As far as Travis goes, well he for the most part sounds the same. But overall this track is just unbearable. Than we have "Sober", which right off the bat I can tell I'm going to freakin' hate. The chorus on this track is so cheesy, while the verses aren't absolutely horrible aren't anything memorable either. I mean it's obvious and I really shouldn't have to say this at all, but man oh man are these guys slacking on the songwriting. All of the "Na-Na's" throughout the track make me want to skip over this one entirely and move on. If that wasn't bad enough they literally take all of the worst parts of this track and continuously rehash them. "Sober" tries to be so epic and grand, when honestly it's completely flat. Lets move on to "No Future", and right off the bat let me just say thank freakin' goodness Travis can still play, he's easily the most energetic thing about this album. As this one goes on, we're treated to lyrics we've probably heard from Blink since 1997, and you're damn right it's annoying. The verses here are painful, but ironically the chorus on "No Future" is easily some of the catchiest material on the entire album. Instrumentally, this one is pretty solid, but those lyrics need to be just thrown out completely. But I have to give Skiba praise, he's venturing into completely new ground on this album, and as far as his performance goes it's been alright. Whose ready for a couple of tracks named after places? I'm sure not, but I'm gonna discuss them anyway. First we have "San Diego", which right from its opening guitars I can tell is going to be painfully bad. This track at the end of the day is just another completely failed attempt at Blink writing a serious track. Back in the day, they had a few really solid serious tracks here and there, but these days Blink and serious songs just do not mix well, and "San Diego" is no different. These added instrumentals here just are so bad, the synthesizers, the acoustic strumming, it's absolutely awful. One thing I have to say I enjoy about this album though, are the chorus's, I feel like this is at least catchier overall than "Neighborhoods". If they just dropped some of these tracks like 10 production levels, and cleaned up their songwriting, I wouldn't be nearly as pissed off. Oh boy, but they're not done, we still have the album's title track, "California". Just hearing that intro makes me want to throw up and stop even thinking about this album, This one, I don't even want to think about too long. There isn't a single lyrical moment here that is the slightest bit impressive, it's almost like they aren't even trying. Like, not even the chorus here is worth a listen, I'm just gonna move on.
The hits really just keep on coming! "Teenage Satellites"starts off sounding pretty solid, but that gets thrown out once I hear the same boring songwriting and these awful piano notes popping into the verses. It's not the first time I've heard those pianos here, but man they are just so bad. This track does have a few catchy moments here and there though, but it's just so freakin' safe. To be honest though, "The Only Thing That Matters" is....surprisingly great. Honestly, everything here sounds like the Blink 182 that I went through High School listening to. The instrumentals are upbeat, the lyrics (including a very subtle nod to Reel Big Fish, I caught that) are much easier to swallow, honestly why can't they do more like this? If they did an album that sounded more like this, I'd be genuinely interested. But then we have other tracks on here that make me want to take that all back, like the absolute most boring track here, "Home Is Such A Lonely Place". Hearing this intro I literally want to scream and run far far away from this album. It sounds sorta Emo from time to time, and Mark somehow pulls off his most ridiculously bad verse yet. It's so bad that I literally have no jokes for it. There's parts that sound Semi-Lullabyish, whoever thought that was a good idea really needs to think more next time. When Travis comes in, it gets a little better, but overall this is just about the worst thing I've heard from Blink in years. Next up is "Left Alone", which as soon as it starts it's literally the exact opposite of what I want to hear from these guys. The synths are back, and literally Blink should never bring synthesizers into consideration. Once again we have a pretty solid chorus, but both Mark and Matt's verses are absolutely dreadful. The drum fills have gotten cliche at this point as well. These piano notes keep popping up during the chorus to illustrate that BLINK 182 HAS FEELINGS MAN!!!! But where the hell is the fun? Where's the songwriting? Where's the sense of humor? Oh wait, I found the "humor". It's right here on "Built This Pool"!!! Just kidding, I'm never going to get those 17 seconds back. Grow up. And because that wasn't enough, "Brohemian Rhapsody" at the end just needs to take even more precious moments of my life away as Mark Hoppus just so happened to feel like the most asinine lyric of the decade, that pisses me off more than anything. I wouldn't have been amused when you were 24, and I'm sure not amused when you're 44.
Overall Rating: 5.9/10
Give A Listen To: "The Only Thing That Matters", "Los Angeles", "Kings of the Weekend"? I Guess?
Overall Thoughts: You know I was really interested on how this was going to turn out. And I gotta say I'm really disapointed. They can clearly still churn out catchy choruses, and Matt Skiba honestly fits in pretty nicely. However the songwriting is in DESPERATE need of work. Not to mention the overall feeling of this album is just so lifeless and bland, nice try boys, better luck next time.
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