Blink-182’s New Album Out This Friday • Page 2

I have to be honest, I haven't really listened to ATL since Nothing Personal so I could be off in my comparison there and as you said, perhaps it's the association with Feldman/Hoppus that is giving me those feels.

 

people can hear the full record already? :s

 

Meh, I don't hear it.

 

I thought this album was absolutely terrible. Bored to death was pretty good and maybe a couple others but overall very disappointing. I'm all for Skiba playing the hits but this sounds like +44/All time low and I'm not into it at all... Tom made this band.

 

As if +44 and All Time Low didn't already sound very similar to Blink 182.

 

Check if it comes with a digital copy, I just preordered the cassette and that does. If so I imagine the download would be sent to you release day.

 

'Tom made this band.'

Which means 'Dammit,' 'Josie,' 'What's My Age Again?' 'Adam's Song,' 'The Rock Show,' and dozens of non-singles don't count.

I'm forever amazed at the mythology around Tom DeLonge. You could have been a casual fan during their peak and barely known he existed; he's spent 12 years saying outlandish things about aliens and overstating his own musical abilities; his singing is literally the stuff memes are made of; and he doesn't want to be in this band, except for the times it gives attention to his other projects.

Somehow, though, he continues to be idolized and seen as some great figure by a huge amount of fans. Most things in life make some amount of sense - even if a person doesn't agree with a position, that position is understandable. The Tom DeLonge infatuation is like believing 2+2=5. It just makes zero sense.

 

TOYPAJ is the album that this most reminds me of as well. Some sprinkling of newer stuff.

Yeah, I'm bummed that Bohemian Rhapsody isn't a full song too. In my opinion, that's the best intro to a blink-182 song since Carousel. But it's pretty much just an intro.

This and "Sober" to me have the potential to be huge. Both very catchy.

 

Thank you.

 

I'd say 95% of the people who chime in on Tom Delonge are saying negative things... that is, at least on this website. So much so, that even though i agree with all your criticisms of him, i actually started feeling bad for him.

 

I thought so too, but since the new album came out there's been this ridiculous wave of "this album sucks because it's not the same band" and "they need tom" etc.

 

The constant 'this isn't blink' and 'Tom made this band' and 'they shouldn't use the name' comments are what bring it out. I find it insulting to Mark and Travis (and Skiba, who's 10x the musician as Tom, as his main band and side projects have shown for 15+ years) that they're supposed to not do what they love because someone else has decided he no longer wants to.

The attitude is similar to the one people have when they break up with a boyfriend/girlfriend. They don't want to date them, but they don't want anyone else to either. That person is worth criticizing, and that's how Tom and his fans have come across. Mark and Travis shouldn't be held in musical purgatory by the whims of Tom. And the constant belief they should be is maddening.

 

I mean it's totally fine if Tom not being there is too tough a pill to swallow, it's the further rationalizing they try to do to justify it. Especially when I see them act like he was this band's only saving grace with lyrics... Snake Charmer? Pretty Little Girl? This Is Home?

Mark and Tom are pretty even with lyrics over blink's career. And I'd actually give Mark the edge because he kills at choruses.

 

I tried to explain how I felt about the differences a bit in the blink thread.

California is weird for me. On one hand, just about every single spot I really love on the album is Matt Skiba on vocals. The last 50 seconds of the opener - the chorus on San Diego, for example. But there's a lot about this album that bothers me. Tom brought some really memorable riffs, and this album doesn't really have a riff that shines at all. The lengthiest intro on this album is the final song, and that song itself is shorter than the intro to the album opener of Neighborhoods.

That is a small gripe, but I think it makes a big difference. Just listening to After Midnight right now, I miss that back and forth vocal style, at that speed even, and I think this album is a lot different in terms of the *back and forth* between the two vocalists. I liked that intro, and that little guitar riff. I don't miss Tom's voice at all, I would gladly swap out his voice for Skiba's voice, but I do miss how weird some of Neighborhoods got (Snake Charmer - that weird intro leading into a typical Blink guitar riff...), I miss the riffs, and the pace of that album.

I know it's tough to argue in Neighborhoods favor given the reception people have of the album, but that's just what I notice.

 

To be fair this album sounds nothing like +44. The only song that sounds a little like +44 is Bored to Death which haters seem to find okay.

 

I feel ya man. I would love if they created an 'Apple shampoo', 'lemmings' or 'jose' again, just for fun and to appease older fans, but I wouldn't want a whole album of that. Just a throwback song. I will say cynical, the first song on the record, is an amazing song and I will say is the throwbackiest of them all probably. Well, and brohemian rhapsody which is only 30 seconds long but sounds amazing. Would love if they expand on that song in an EP or something.

 

The album should also be featuring "Left Alone" and "Home is Such a Lonely Place."

 

Skiba is not a riff writer. He's power chords and octaves. Tom's riff writing, even if he's a lousy performer and vocalist to boot, is creative and memorable for the most part. Because Blink was a three-piece all these years, he developed the ability to function as both a rhythm and lead guitarist, something Mark's bass playing enabled in part. (Mark plays bass like a guitar.)

On California, the guitar basically functions like a bass which allows the drums, bass and vocals to move around a bit more. That's why there's more vocalizing (e.g. "Na Na Na") on this record than any of the previous records. They don't have a lead guitarist to play any given song/part's melody so they use Mark and/or Matt to vocalize the melody just like a lead guitar would.

 

Just got around to No Future. If that's the worst song on here, I should be pretty happy with the album

 

How is everyone listening to the entire album already?

 

This isn't necessarily a bad album, but at the same time, it's one of the worst albums I've heard recently. It reminds me of how I felt about The Force Awakens. Sure it's enjoyable and ticks off everything that it should be to be a "good" movie, but it was one of the most boring and fake feeling movies I've seen.

I don't blame Blink for releasing California because it seems to be a good album to most people and it will definitely do well. It just feels like they went through a checklist and wrote songs that hit all of the things people like about Blink or pop punk.

Tom Delonge is a douchebag. Tom Delonge quit Blink. Tom Delonge's can't sing.

All of those things are true to some degree at certain times. I don't care. Because I loved Tom's artistic vision. Specifically, I loved how it interacted with Mark acting as a counterweight.

 

this makes so much sense to me. I had no idea but you hit everything on this post. Thank you. It tells me exactly why the album is the way it is, and why it isn't what I had hoped for / what I had wanted.

 

I would guess that if 'California' is as well received as the TFA by critics (92% on Rotten Tomatoes) and fans (89%), that Mark, Matt and Travis will be very pleased.

 

I remember a few months back Blink posted an instagram video of Skiba signing the lyrics "What's the point of saying sorry now"...What song is that on the new record?

 

Cynical