Blink-182 [ARCHIVED] Band • Page 252

If I was Matt I'd be in blink for the rest of my life

 

They name of the sites escaping me.

 

For real.

 

If Money is the only thing that matters to him than sure

 

I mean i could be wrong, but dude seems genuinely happy in blink.

 

All's I want is a legitimate statement on the future of the Trio, my soul will rest firmly rather it be bad or good.

 

I'm down for that! I used to shit on Neighborhoods but after revisiting it around the release of California I realized I liked a lot more than I remembered.

Honestly the only thing that bugs me about the album is that no song has vocals in their bridges.

 

No doubt, and I've been happy for him. But this material he's busted out isn't no where his best. If he decides to stay with Blink forever, cool and I'll support him and be happy for him. But in my opinion he'll only generate decent to average music.

 

Neighborhoods still felt like a NATURAL progression of the band and who they were as people as well as musicians(my personal opinion, but the reason I’ve always loved and related to blink is not just because of their music and the way it sounded, but how it always felt like it was representative of who they were at the time and moment, and how I related. and it just felt honest, but that’s a whole otherh discussion that I could write an essay on) I think even though neighborhoods wasn’t a massive hit, it was a time where I was okay with blink possibly not being as huge and popular anymore and trying to appeal to the masses, but knowing it’s fanbase. California is a fun good album but in my mind is what was the transition point for blink where they now were making music for nostalgic reasons. It’s a new blink that’s I’ve come to accept and like, but it’s not the better version of blink.

It’s a push and pull thing for me, cause I’m happy that everyone’s happy with the current situation, but I still wish OG blink would’ve worked out their issues and made one last great record

 

Yup absolutely.

 

Yeah I agree that what we got with Neighborhoods was fine, but it just felt more like a really polished demo album instead of a finished product. They really needed a producer or someone with an outside voice to help polish the songs along with them needing Tom actually caring about making the album and them spending more than what 2 or 3 weeks in the same studio together to record.

And yeah I wish we did get a really good follow up record to the Untitled album. Such a shame.

 

I mean hes only done one album with them, and it was a comeback AND getting peopld used to a new member. Give the band time to get their feet wet in the skiba era so to speak. I think his best work in blink is cominh

 

Not that I think Neighborhoods would have been a big hit or anything, but I think if it would have come out a couple of years after Untitled, it would have been looked at a lot more favorably. I know it kind of goes against what you were saying about it being where they were at in their lives, but I think had we not gotten +44 and three AvA albums, it would have felt much more natural

I can't really listen to it without feeling like I had heard all of their songwriting tricks and couldn't get away from feeling the +44/AvA mishmash that it was. Before the initial break up, it actually felt like the three of them wrote the songs together (whether they did or not) because there was some cohesion in the sound, especially on Untitled. With Neighborhoods, even the guitar tones made it obvious that Tom and Mark had no influence on each other's songs.

 

Completely agree, MH4.18.2011 doesn't sound like a guitar tone that Tom would come up with, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't even record the guitar parts to that song. Heart's All Gone is another one where the guitar tone sounds very similar to those old YouTube clips of Mark playing guitar for items for the +44 album. Kaleidoscope is another one that I'm not even sure Tom had any guitar influence on. I wouldn't be shocked if Tom never even listened to Fighting the Gravity. The was the biggest thing that stood out and still stands out how it feels like everything was recorded separately with no input for the others and they just piece it all together.

 

Pretty sure you're right about all of those. I remember always seeing them post studio videos and Mark was coming up with the guitar parts with his engineer. Not that that is completely a bad thing because I'm sure Mark wrote a lot of the guitar way back in the day, as well, but I think their sounds had started to split and we had been exposed to what they sound like on their own through their side projects during the hiatus. When they came back together I guess we expected it to sound...different? But no, you're right, instead it sounded like they had never even listened to each other's songs before the album came out. I think in the hypothetical situation where Neighborhoods came out right after Untitled, we wouldn't have noticed/cared quite as much but it still would have been noticeable.

 

I love Skiba more on Last Train Home, Long Lost Feeling and Left Alone than almost all of his Trio songs since Crimson tbh. His vocals on Cali have more energy than they've had in a long time. Dead On The Floor and St. Anthony are up there close for me though. How The Hell Did We Get Here is one of my favorite Skiba songs ever, and most of Babylon is great Skiba to me too. I think I like both Sekrets records more than his recent Trio writing.

 

Yeah songs like MH, Hearts All Gone and Fighting the Gravity I'm convinced Tom had absolutely nothing to do with. And honestly, those are my 3 least favorite songs on the album.

 

I thought My Shame was amongst his best, Crimson was inconsistent even though I love that album. Both Sekrets album's are stellar.

 

Oh yeah Mark definitely wrote guitar parts for songs before the break up. Obviously the most famous one was Dammit.

Yeah I think we notice it more because after the break up Tom's music style went in a totally different directions. His guitar tones were all that spacy delayed sounds instead of the power punk chords he was so used to using. So for example if Ghost on the Dance Floor came out as a b-side in 2004 we probably wouldn't have thought anything of it and just chalked it up to the band continuing to experiment with their music as a natural progression from the Untitled album but because it was something we heard numerous times over and over with AVA it kind of slaps you right in the face and you say to yourself "Yup sounds like AVA".

I know when they got back together I figured Neighborhoods would sound more like Untitled with heavy guitar sounds, catching riffs and sing along choruses. So even if Neighborhoods came out in 2006, I think it would have been noticeable as there weren't any catchy riffs or good sing along songs but yeah I don't think would have cared because in that hypothetical Jerry Finn would have been around to help them and it would have been better then what we got.

 

FBI is really the only song I don't care for on there. Midnight Blue is ok but I love the whole rest of the album. Definitely not dissing it!

 

When push comes to shove Dan owns that album.

 

I love She Lied To The FBI, might be my favorite on that album. I actually think it would have been a better as a blink song though.

 

Grrrr....

 

That's true, I'm sure it would have been much better. I guess in that scenario you would have to look at +44 and AvA's first records but still...

You're probably right about still feeling a big disparity between albums, but I guess I just can't get past knowing so much about the recording process and all of the side projects in the span between blink albums. I can't really look at it objectively, ya know? Honestly, DED is probably a smoother transition out of Untitled. I think hearing that in 2006 or so would have seemed totally normal.

 

Yeah DED sounded like they all cared and gave an effort. Outside of the intros in When I Was Young and Disaster the guitars had that Untitled heavy feel.

I do feel that knowing so much about the recording process of Neighborhoods has made me sour on that record. Definitely disappointing knowing the effort wasn’t all there.