blink-182 - Neighborhoods (2011)
At the end of a five year hiatus, and then another two years to release the album.. HURRAH!! BLINK-182 IS BACK!!.. But with a catch, but I'll get into that later. Just be thankful that drummer Travis Barker getting into a plane crash, aside from all of the terrible shit that came with it, such as the deaths and trauma that should not simply be glossed over, made Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus put aside their differences when comforting their friend in the hospital, and a friendship was re-sparked like it had never gone out. It was a pretty fuckin' great time to be a fan of blink-182 at the time, I tell ya h'wat.
So at the time, seven years had passed since their self-titled album and people were wondering "What's the new blink-182 album going to sound like?! I can't wait!!" and I was one of those people, and the album ended up sounding nothing like I thought it would. This album still retains minor pop-punk elements but mainly keeps its big toe in the experimental water in an interesting but dividing clash of ideas that must have certainly created artistic tension in the band yet again, sadly enough.
You see, while blink-182 was broken up, each member kept busy with different projects, such as Tom DeLonge's stadium-rock anthems with Angels & Airwaves, Mark Hoppus' and Travis Barker's dark and electronic-tinged +44, and Travis Barker's various affiliations with hip-hop artists. People were interested in seeing how blink-182 would work together now, hoping that it'd be just like back in the "Enema of the State" days, and honestly it feels just like each member had a basket of ideas and stood at opposite ends of a room, threw them into the air at the same time, and whatever would land into the basket in the middle of the room was a mixture of all of the combined ideas, but what Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker didn't know was that the basket of ideas that Tom DeLonge had thrown in the air had homing devices connected to them, suspiciously taking most of the control of this album, often leading to moments where you'll find yourself asking "Is this an Angels & Airwaves song?" for better or worse.
Rest assured, even though the perhaps pseudo-joyous sounding "This is Home" wasn't asked for by anyone, from the opening track of "Ghost on the Dance Floor" to the ending (assuming you don't have the bonus tracks) track "Love is Dangerous", there isn't a single bad song on here. There is not a single song on here I don't like even at least moderately so. Nearly every song has a memorable or even fucking GREAT guitar riff from Tom DeLonge (just check out the ending of "Up All Night" or the general riff in "Snake Charmer", holy shit!!), lyrics that range from good to great, and just a generally good batch of songs beginning to end, so if you're afraid about quality, don't worry, it's here, but like I said at the beginning of the review, there's a catch.
Even though Mark Hoppus was very much an active part of this album and bleeds blink-182, and Travis Barker is a phenomenal drummer who's along for the ride to make easy songs complicated, Tom DeLonge just has TOO much influence on the music and its direction to truly be able to say as a fan that I can listen to the album and say "Yep, I bet Mark was really excited about this song!" when I only get that feeling with four of the songs, "Natives" which is a GREAT song with dual vocals from both Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge and is the immediate sucker-punch that they haven't strayed -too- far from what fans wanted, the throwback punk rock track "Heart's All Gone", the (arguably best) track "MH 4.18.2011" and the experimental "Fighting the Gravity", and since the album (with bonus tracks included) is 14 tracks long, that's a bit of a bummer.
This is such a difficult album to review because I honestly really like it, I do, but there are problems that are apparent no matter how great "Wishing Well" and "Kaleidoscope" are, and that's the fact that the lines had obviously become blurred for Tom DeLonge on what's blink-182 and what's Angels & Airwaves, and some will argue "that's just Tom's style now" and I 110% get that, but it still feels awkward and disjointed, which leads to my main problem with this album: Exactly what I just said, it feels awkward and disjointed, like a bunch of ideas that get thrown into a basket, that end up turning out to be good or even great songs, and would be a great album by any other band, but it's blink-182 we're talking about, and while their self-titled was experimental for them, there are songs on here that feel like they're trying too hard to push the envelope and that's just not the band they are, or anyone really wanted them to be.
The lack of musical unity at times makes it feel less like a blink-182 album and more like a Mark Hoppus/Tom DeLonge/Travis Barker collaboration album ala "What Happens When Worlds Collide?!" and it turns out that this album wasn't even recorded with each member in the same studio, but they'd just track their respective parts and email them to each other. It can, oddly enough, be felt in the music, enough to take this album down from a 8/10 to a 7/10 to me. It's a solid batch of songs, but there are too many songs on here that while good, no one really wanted blink-182 to pursue, like if you were to order pizza and were given hot wings instead, you'll still probably like it, but it's not what you expected. The album's a bit of a wild ride with Tom DeLonge at the wheel and seemingly in full-control, and while it may be a fun drive, complete with sudden unexpected turns, you're gonna find yourself in the passenger seat, smiling but also wondering where the hell you're going and why.
7/10
________________________________________________________ Feel free to check out the song previews/buy this album using my Amazon Associate link!
