Box Car Racer - Box Car Racer (2002)
Box Car Racer, lead by blink-182 co-vocalist/guitarist Tom DeLonge and even backed up by blink-182's drummer Travis Barker is a HUGE departure from everything you'd come to expect from Tom DeLonge. The glorious thing about blink-182 is that they nearly always sound like what it feels like to be young, happy, and/or confused, but this album is dark and almost comes across as a dying man reflecting on life, with what happened and what could be, before his death, which, of course, as of writing in 2016, Tom DeLonge's still kickin' fiercely at the world around him, for different reasons now than then, so don't worry about that.
That's not to say the casual fan of blink-182 won't enjoy it, but there definitely is a huge departure in sound (that would later be bridged with blink-182's 2003 untitled album) from what people had come to expect from Tom DeLonge, as I said, and I could see people who dislike blink-182 liking this album for what it is. It's almost as if Tom DeLonge was inspired by blink-182's previous hits "Adam's Song" and "Stay Together For the Kids" and decided to make an entire album that's pretty much an off-shoot of those sounds, which is to say that if you like a bit of raw emotion in your pop-punk, you're in for somethin' good, and if you like buttering your Poptarts, what the fuck is wrong with you? One time when I was 8 or so, I watched my dad eat two Poptarts with ham in between them, perhaps as a way to impress/gross us out, or maybe he was just drunk as shit. I guess my selective memory benefits us both there.
This album is just so gloriously insecure in all of the right ways, with the first track, "I Feel So" being pretty much the anthem for most teenagers, despite how simplistic the lyrics of the track are, "And I" starting with a pretty neat beat played by Travis Barker leading into again simplistic but effective lyrics about hurting with or without that special girl, and who could forget the lovely acoustic tune "There Is"? That song gorgeously describes teenage love in full-swing, with lyrics such as the touching "Those notes you wrote me, I kept them all. I've given a lot of thought on how to write you back this fall. With every single letter in every single word, there'll be a hidden message about a boy that loves a girl." it's just a great song that definitely helped lead to Tom DeLonge's later band, Angels & Airwaves.
Sure, that's a great song, but if you wanna talk about an AMAZING song, look no further than "Letters to God", which I believe to be one of Tom DeLonge's best songs he's ever written, with how it starts out as an acoustic song with the lyrics portraying a protagonist on his deathbed, begging God to let him live a little bit longer, that he'll do anything: He won't lie, he won't even sin. He doesn't want to go, but eventually pleads with God to even let him into heaven. It's a heartbreaking track but then.. BAM, the loud as hell electric guitar riff and drums come crashing in, adding to the emotion of the moment, as Tom DeLonge further pleads with God for just a little longer on this planet. Words can't describe the chills that song gives me. Truly incredible.
Sure, the lyrics may be a bit -too- simple at times, but they're effective at truly getting across the fragile teenage mindset when experiencing heartbreak... Until "My First Punk Song" kicks in out of nowhere as track 8, with beautiful lyrics such as "There's one problem, I got brownies from your mother, they gave me syphilis, now I got no dick.. (FUCK YEAH!)" but it's really just an odd song to put on an emotional album, and another odd song comes with the second-to-last track "Elevator" actually featuring none other than blink-182 bassist/co-vocalist Mark Hoppus! It's weird because it's blink-182.. But it's NOT blink-182, y'know? Kinda like how my dad's not himself when he's eating ham between two Poptarts, but hey, I still love it/him for what it/he is.
If you're a blink-182 fan and don't have this in your collection, pick it up, maybe cry a bit, and listen to Tom DeLonge explore some of his musical influences. If you're not a blink-182 fan, there still may be hope for you, as long as you're a teenager going through a rough time, or at least are still mentally an angsty teenager like I am. Remember being able to do young people shit like play video games all night, feel emotions and see color? That was CRAZY!!
7/10
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Feel free to check out the song previews/buy this album using my Amazon Associate link!
