Blink-182 – Neighborhoods [Interscope; 2011]
The bottom line: Neighborhoods finds Blink-182 tossing generalities at their rather general audience, hoping to inspire everyone but themselves.
I must preface this review with a disclaimer: I am biased against pop-punk. Perhaps not the poppy punk-rock of Descendants, Jawbreaker and The Queers – in fact, I’m a fan of all of those bands – but the nostalgia pandering and forced emotion of Greenday, Fallout Boy and, yes, Blink-182-type drivel.
Blame my upbringing on this; the closest I was ever allowed to the genre was through The Buzzcocks, and the first LPs I ever listened to on my own were by Dead Kennedys and The Misfits.
However, I can’t deny Blink-182 deserves some sort of recognition for what they’ve done. For better or worse ¬– in my opinion, worse – they’ve been a treasure trove of saturated punk nearly every band on the Warped Tour roster has been happy to pillage.
There’s reason to this. As much as I dislike Mark Hoppus’ and Tom DeLonge’s flat and angst-ridden vocals and the band’s insistence on re-writing the same manual of pop-punk over and over again, I have to admit there are times where my only reason for not liking this band is my own bias.
I’m going to cut the crap and just say it: these guys can write some terribly catchy songs. What’s lacking in their album “Neighborhoods,” though, is just that. There’s nothing on here as shamelessly catchy as “Dammit” or “I Miss You.”
Compounded with the band’s newfound penchant for trying to sound “meaningful,” the usual insipid lyrics and homogenized sound and you have a comeback album that sounds more like a band trying to simultaneously mature and pander to the usual tween audience and nostalgic diehards.
“Neighborhoods” will most likely be praised as another step toward maturity for the band. Yes, I’ll agree it’s matured from middle-school angst to high-school angst – good for them – but I won’t go as far as to say it’s all that different from before.
Besides the obvious tinges of influence from the band members’ other side projects – 44’s keyboards and Angels & Airwave’s laughable bombast – Blink-182 are still the pop-punk band that places so much emphasis on the pop that the only thing punk about it is, perhaps, the speed in which the members play their instruments.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I wish the band’s lyrics were of the same “quality” as they were on previous albums.
Don’t get me wrong, DeLonge’s lyrics have always been superficial and trite, but at least they seemed to hit on something personal. Now the band is tossing generalities at its rather general audience, hoping to inspire everyone but itself.
“Love is dangerous!” DeLonge sings on a track titles “Love is Dangerous.”
“Everyone falls and spins and gets up again with a friend who does the same,” he sings on the lead single “Up All Night.” Oh, I get it. This is arena-pop-punk. Now the line between the band and punk is even more eschewed.
Credit should be given where credit is due, though. Even though I can’t say I enjoy the outside influences, it’s nice to see Blink-182 taking some liberties
with playing with its sound a bit.
There are tinges of dream-pop, hard rock, synthesizer rock and perhaps a dancier kind of pop-punk. However, this relatively ambitious display of diversity seems to be working against whatever sort of magic Blink-182 was able to spin during your middle-school years.
Yes, this is the band’s most nuanced record. However, its layering of sounds has only turned its mushy sound into near sugary liquid. All the songs on this album sort of do the same thing to the same end. All of the reverb and electronics push the band’s sound to glittery panoramas and subsequently to tactless shit.
I think fans will agree Blink-182’s charm was just in how simple, childish and naïve its music was. These are middle-aged men who have spent their entire
adult lives pandering to “tweenagers” and are now trying to mature along with their audience.
Perhaps the most endearing – that is, the only endearing – song on this album is the power-pop track “MH 4.18.2011.” It lacks ambition and creativity, yes, but it also lacks any sort of failed bombast or pretentiousness.
If Blink-182 simply decided to write the same album they’ve been writing for the majority of career I would still dislike “Neighborhoods.” However, I would at least be a bit more forgiving and the band would at least be honest to itself.
If you’re a fan of Blink-182 you’re going to ignore this review and pick up the album anyway. However, if you’re looking for something that captures the youthful ignorance of your teenage years you’ll be ultimately disappointed by “Neighborhoods” trying to be something it’s not.
Final grade: D
Recommended Tracks: “MH 4.18.2011,” “Heart’s All Gone”
