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In the late 90’s and early 2000’s, with the release of albums Enema of the State and Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, Blink-182 did more than just cement itself as a prominent or dominant pop-punk act. The band defined a feeling, the feeling of adolescence, of getting rejected by girls and blowing your ears out at rock shows, of going to college and missing your friends, of wasting time and ditching class.
Wherever you were in your adolescent years, there was at least one Blink-182 song that defined you, one that was not just an acceptance but a warm celebration of all your imperfections and teenage idiosyncrasies. And Blink-182 did it all without melodrama or preaching, but rather with clever and joyous hooks, tight musicianship and razor-sharp production.
As a result, when Blink-182 went on an indefinite hiatus following the brooding success of its 2003 self-titled LP, many listeners who had grown up with the antics of Tom, Mark and Travis felt they weren’t just losing a band, they were losing a friend, or three.
Hence the extreme buzz surrounding the release of Neighborhoods, Blink-182’s first collection of new material in over eight years. But does the release match the hype?
Those expecting a triumphant, career-defining return will be thoroughly disappointed by Neighborhoods.
Even worse, listeners simply expecting a strong, cohesive pop-rock record should also look elsewhere, though there are enough good songs — or at least good moments — to make it a worthy listen for the band’s faithful followers.
The album does deal with a wider range of emotions and features some strong musicianship, especially from animal-drummer Travis Barker; however, Neighborhoods is irrevocably weakened by a starkly fragmented sound, one that makes the album feel like it’s being torn apart by its own incongruous ambitions.
This fragmented sound is evident from the very first track. “Ghost on the Dancefloor” is a melodramatic, unimaginative track with a guitar line and chorus that make the song sound like a throwaway from Tom Delonge’s three-album side project, Angels & Airwaves.
In fact, a good half of the tracks on Neighborhoods feature instrumentations that sound straight out of an Angels & Airwaves record, and that’s rarely a good thing.
On the contrary, songs written and performed by Mark Hoppus generally take a more emo- and punk-inspired approach of the likes of his former side project, +44. This can make the transition between tracks like “Snake Charmer,” an awkward sex-themed Airwaves rehash, and single “Heart’s All Gone,” which sounds like a pop-punk song straight out of the 90s, especially jarring. It’s quite obvious that Tom and Mark want to take their band to different places, and despite working together on Neighborhoods for more than two years, the two are unable to reconcile this fact.
Sometimes, this fragmentation rears its ugly head not between tracks, but within them. “Up All Night” is a chopped-up mess of a song, one that transitions from electronic-infused alternative rock, to punk-style bombardment of power chords, to more of what is now becoming Tom Delonge’s signature, U2-lite stadium rock melodrama, in the span of seconds, not minutes.
The fact that “Up All Night” was the album’s lead single betrays another troubling truth about the new Blink; love it or hate it, Blink-182 has never had any trouble crafting one (or six) effortlessly infectious pop-rock tunes. However, on Neighborhoods, long-time listeners will be hard-pressed to find even one.
Despite all of these weaknesses, though, Blink-182’s musical exploration does yield some promising results. “Natives” is a dark, introspective journey into the psyche of the self-hating (with some jaw-dropping instrumentals to boot), and “Heart’s All Gone” is sure to impress with its precise and aggressive nature.
“This Is Home” is another experiment gone right, with dramatic and catchy vocal harmonization in the choruses.
“MH 4.18.2011,” quite possibly the album’s best song, features an impassioned vocal performance from Hoppus, whose refrain of “Hold on, the worst is yet to come … Heartstrong, when everything you loved is gone” might be the most surprisingly emotional bit of encouragement we’ve ever heard from the Blink boys.
Indeed, the best moments on Neighborhoods suggest that the members of Blink-182 have grown within themselves, and matured alongside a listener base that’s probably more irked now by the job market than by girls with douchebag boyfriends.
But the real question Neighborhoods poses is: Can the members of Blink-182 grow with one another?
