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We live in a society where nostalgia sells. We want to hold on to the things that make us feel younger. Blink-182 released their newest album amidst, what is in my opinion, the band’s musical mid-life crisis.
After splitting with long-time guitarist Tom DeLong, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker released the band’s seventh studio album, “California,” with guitarist Matt Skiba (formerly of Alkaline Trio). The album recently replaced Drake’s “Views” at the top of Billboard’s 200 top albums, the band’s first No. 1 album since “Take Off Your Pants and Jacket” in 2001.
We all know more Blink-182 songs than we would like to admit, and the band manages to keep the same California pop-punk sound that we rocked out to in the ‘90s and the early 2000s.
Except, it’s not the same.
All the songs sound whiny with Hoppus and Skiba on vocals. The lyrics are also super depressing. I had hoped that Barker might save the album with his unique, drum-line style of percussion; which was evident at times on the album but was possibly lost as Barker’s drum kit got continuously larger.
Hoppus is quoted as saying the song “Sober” is about rebuilding and finding yourself, which the band desperately needs to do, because nothing is cool about grown men making music for teenagers.
The only single off the album, “Bored to Death” had me just that. It sounds like every other Blink-182 song, which in a way is a good thing, but it sounds overproduced — a pop song as opposed to the punk roots of the band.
Hoppus, known for his childish antics on stage and in the recording studio, included short joke songs “Built this Pool” and “Brohemian Rhapsody,” similar to songs that the band was known for recording on previous albums.
I honestly wouldn’t recommend this album to anyone, and don’t know how it was popular enough to take the top spot on the Billboard charts.
Sometimes you have to move on and leave things in the past, and Blink-182’s “California” is a perfect example of that.
