After eight years of no new releases and a four-year hiatus, American pop-punk band Blink-182 released their sixth studio album titled, “Neighborhoods,” Sept. 27.
Released through DGC Records and Interscope Records, this album was put in the making when the band decided to rejoin talents after going their separate ways in 2005. Throughout the hiatus, the trio consisting of drummer Travis Barker, vocalist and guitarist Tom Delonge, and vocals and bass guitarist Mark Hoppus, used their time wisely by focusing on their side projects.
Travis Barker, though most well known for his talent as a part of Blink-182, has spent quality time heading up the percussion for alternative rock band +44, rap-rock band The Transplants, and the alternative rock bank Box Car Racer. Barker also worked with DJ AM and in their collaborating together they created TRV$DJAM.
Tom DeLonge Jr. is primarily known for his guitar riffs and vocals in Blink-182, but he is also well known for his voice and guitar in the alternative rock band Angels and Airwaves. DeLonge was the guitarist and lead vocalist for Box Car Racer with Barker.
Mark Allan Hoppus stands side by side with DeLonge on vocals and bass guitar for Blink-182 and works with Barker as bass guitarist and lead vocalist of +44. Hoppus is also a producer for many bands such as Idiot Pilot, New Found Glory, The Matches and Motion City Soundtrack.
In 1992, DeLonge, Hoppus and original drummer Scott Raynor came together in Poway, Calif., and started making music. In 1994, Blink-182 released their fairly successful first album “Cheshire Cat” followed by “Dude Ranch” three years later, which sold over one million copies.
In 1998, Barker replaced Raynor while the band was midway through a tour only to boost the band’s success with the release of the multi-platinum “Enema of the State” in 1999.
Blink-182 would achieve No. 1 status in the music charts after their crudely humorous drop in 2001, “Take Off Your Pants and Jacket.”
After tension started to get out of hand within the trio, DeLonge opted to leave the band to start new music ventures putting the beloved Blink-182 on an indefinite hiatus that was devastating to fans all over the world. However, in spite of claiming they would never get back together, Blink-182 started to collaborate again in Feb. 2009 and two years later has graced us all with “Neighborhoods.”
Differing from the previous five albums, “Neighborhoods” is the first Blink-182 album that was not produced with the aid of an external record producer, but rather the trio produced the album themselves.
They began working on the album in 2009 but were stalled soon after starting the process by tours, managers and their side projects. The band restarted the production of “Neighborhoods” in July of this year in separate studios only to combine forces to record from time to time. Maintaining their reputation as an experimental band, Blink-182 focused on preserving a pop-sensation sound paired with dark and edgy lyrics within every single one of the 14 songs on the album.
Kicking off the album with a song titled “Ghost on the Dance Floor,” Blink-182 sounds better than ever. With DeLonge pushing his vocals to give off that Angels and Airwaves vibe, the song sounds as if it is a happy medium of AVA and Blink-182, almost as if DeLonge just snatched up Barker and Hoppus and featured them on an AVA song. The percussion on the song is nothing less than absolutely mind-blowing. Barker highlights his amazing drum skills in this track.
Shooting right into track two, “Natives,” the trio uses heavy guitar riffs, which prompt immediate head-bobbing to the beat. DeLonge takes a brief step back and allows Hoppus to capture the audience with his distinguishably amazing vocal chords. In spite of this song being lyrically depressing, fans will still feel the high of Blink getting back together.
The ninth track on the album, “Kaleidoscope,” gives off a +44 vibe, apparent through Hoppus and Barker’s collaboration. Though the lyrics scream that it is a long road to get it right, the trio has truly done their audiences right with this song.
The entirety of this album screams Blink-182, even after years apart. Blink-182 allows their separate upbringings and life experiences to shine through the lyrics of the album and their genius musical talent to take any listener away back to the days when they first fell in love with Blink.
