Everyone has to grow up sometime, even the potty-mouthed pop-punkers, Blink 182. Their new self-titled album, blink-182, is a leap in musical maturity, lyrical ability and openness toward differing genres. The piss and fart jokes are old now and what would the band's kids say if they kept talking about their penises all the time?
It's not easy to write a review for an album that isn't easy describe. It's not the pop-punk everyone is used to from Blink and musically it's a stretch to even call it punk. If there is anything punk about blink-182 it's the presentation. It's different, against all norms and surprising. It obviously has strong influences from everything the band is into; hip-hop, 80's music and everything else that makes a musicians' CD collection stand out.
Musically, one thing that really stands out is the sheer rawness of the album. This is seen in "Obvious" The overall production (by Jerry Finn) of blink-182 is crisp and well done. Everything has an intricate, vital place in each song. Nothing is left out and nothing is overdone. "Violence" is an awesome extension of Blink's artistic side complete with a wind tunnel vocal sound, jazzy fills and punkish drums. "The Fallen Interlude" is Blink's hip-hop sampling track that would never fit on a typical punk album. As the album moves along, "Go" is a track that sounds like it could fit on Dude Ranch because it's one of the few songs on the new album that have that old pop-punk feeling to it.
Almost every song, especially "Feeling This," "Obvious" and "Stockholm Syndrome" have main vocals with harmony vocals that add power and emotion to each track.
Tom Delonge's vocals are still adolescent and high pitched, but have the same seriousness as the lyrical content within the songs. Mark Hoppus adds the deeper, more mature sound to the album and Travis Barker obviously puts all he has into the drums. The Cure's own Robert Smith even makes an appearance on "All of This."
Next to the music being much more developmental and unique, the other aspect that really stands out on the new album is the lyrical content. Sure "Feeling This" may still talk about sex, but it does so in a much darker way. It looks into both the romantic and lustful sides of sex, but not as blatantly as the band may have done in the past. Other songs are about paranoia ("Stockholm Syndrome"), a loss of hope ("Asthenia") and social issues in "Here's Your Letter."
blink-182 is powerful. It shows that the band has the capability to write songs that go beyond toilet humor and simple three-chord structures. Delonge, Hoppus and Barker have taken a much needed step out of the box. For that reason I give blink-182 a 9 (out of 10). It's great to see something different being done in music. Sure, many of the hardcore, pop fans of Blink 182 may hate this album, but life requires everyone to grow up and blink-182 is a perfect example of this.
Suggested Listening: "Violence," "Down," "Go" and "All of This"
By: Adam K. Zakroczymski III - Senior Editor / Founder
November 30, 2003
