Blink-182 [ARCHIVED] Band • Page 1544

Hearts All Gone still sounds absolutely terrible

 

After Midnight is definitely the stand out track on that record for me too.

I personally don’t think Dogs Eating Dogs has a standout “best of must have” Blink song.

 

Up All Night!!! One of my most favorite Blink songs, not to mention, my anthem of late. Lol

 

I spent the day trying to convince myself to like up all night because it was new blink. Here i am 9 years later still disappointed in that song

 

I remember the day it came out, I was 14 and sitting in Carl’s Jr. with a couple friends. One of them thought it was Weezer for some reason.

 

I've felt this way about all of neighborhoods. It's just mediocre front to back.

 

Agreed. Do you remember the original version though? It is awfulllll. I remember a bunch of people trying to come to it’s defense saying it was just a demo and just thinking, uhhhh no. A multi-platinum band making a comeback is not dropping a demo for the second song to be released in 7 years.

 

Even if She Falls has become my favorite from Neighborhoods.

 

Neighborhoods is such a weird album to listen to from front to back. Them recording it obviously not in the same room and at different times shows so much. I mean Tom sounds completely different vocally throughout I think. One minute there's glimpses of classic Tom, then there's AVA Tom and then there's another Tom. The production is also just annoyingly inconsistent throughout.

 

The Neighbourhoods and Dogs Eating Dogs era always had a little too much of Tom’s AvA sound to me. I’m sure there was a degree of appeasement there, but I wish they didn’t feel like they had to go there. That’s not to say there aren’t good songs in that era though.

 

Yup. The album version is definitely a marked improvement over that, but every time I listen to it the production is still super grating to my ears lol

 

I've thrown on the +44 album a ton over the past week or so and it's so weird listening to how much better that sounds compared to Neighborhoods.

When Your Heart Stops Beating really has aged well I think.

 

Yeahhhh, I nearly cried seeing Tom play There Is at AVA last year... Overwhelmingly nostalgic, plus the sold out crowd singing back every word...

It strikes a nerve, hits on something else...

 

My $.02 on the “Neighbourhoods/DED” era: MH 4.18.2011 is the most underrated Blink song in their catalog and that’s what stands out the most

 

Yeah Neighborhoods definitely suffered in the production department & with them recording in separate locations. Can we say they pioneered quarantine albums 9 years early?

I think the question of bringing in a producer for the follow up to DED was one of the contentions prior to Tom Is Out Pt. 2 right?

 

Like I love Natives a lot as a song but it just sounds so goddamn terrible lol.

I mean Tom pretty much put them down for needing a producer at one point regarding California. I don't remember the exact wording or the level of passive aggressiveness though.

If Tom used a producer there'd be half an hour of intro time missing from AVA's catalog

 

The Postal Service did it earlier and way better

 

If Tom used a producer AVA might have a shot at being remotely relevant in 2020 haha

 

I think I remember actually liking the demo more than the album version lol. The vocals are mixed so terribly on the song. It starts off great and then as soon as he says "Take off the gloves" it takes me out of it.

 

There were tons of mixing issues across that album.

 

It seems that Tom has at least been a lot more open to receiving input from Ilan and Aaron Rubin the last few years. I actually think Ilan writes a good bit of the music that Tom is releasing with Angels & Airwaves nowadays. I think the production and songwriting has been a lot better than it used to be. It would be nice if he worked with someone 100% from the outside every once in a while though.

 

Also, Neighborhoods has a few decent/good moments, but it's mostly trash compared to anything else in their catalog. I agree that it's so uneven throughout and Tom's voice sounds different from song to song. Also, Mh 4.18.2011 is not good. Just sounds like a generic b-side that wouldn't make any other record. I think This Is Home is the winner for worst song on the album though.

 

Listening to Neighborhoods now. God Tom's voice sounds so lifeless on Ghosts.
Also I feel like Natives would've been so much better if Mark sang the verses and Tom sang the chorus. Makes more sense to have the monotone vocals build up to the whine/yelling vocals Tom uses.

 

Tom recycling the There Is melody is something I often forget

 

I don’t think so, at least it wasn’t mentioned it was publicly by any of the band. Both Tom and Mark did interviews during the Untitled Anniversary tours saying they were in the process of interviewing producers and record labels for the next album. I also believe that they had a producer lined up before Tom quit again 2 week before they were going to go into the studio but we never learned who it would be. I’m trying to remember the Rolling Stone interview Mark and Travis did after the 2nd break up and they never mentioned it was an issue.