Every now and then your heroes will release new material, and you hope that it will encapsulate everything that made you fall in love with them, but holding onto the past can do you wrong. It seems that Blink-182 have moved on without us old fans and have ventured off in search of a new generation of fans. With their new album Nine (named after being their 9th album), the 40+ pop punk rockers continue to write for the youth of today.
Sounding as slick as ever (probably a little too slick), Blink reinvigorate the pop punk genre with their arrangement of distorted guitars, heavy drums, and dudes whining about their feelings, so nothings really changed. It’s not all bad though, I swear! This album is solid in terms of tone and consistency, even when they bring out the EDM inspired sounds with tonnes of auto-tune. It’s definitely more constructed as a piece of work compared to their previous album California.
With a lot of nostalgic sounds that makes you reminisce of the golden days of Take Off Your Pants and Jacket and the Self-titled album, this is probably the most Blink sounding album in the last 16 years, but minus one Tom Delonge, which in all honesty, makes a huge difference. I’ve noticed with the exclusion of Tom, Mark Hoppus takes on a more prominent role in the vocals, and as obviously auto-tuned as he is, he is singing at a much higher register, which comes off very whiney and annoying after a while. He shares his vocals with guitar and vocals replacement, Matt Skiba, who sounds just as polished and over produced, it leaves me disappointed. Where’s the authenticity? Where’s is the soul of this album?
If you were to ask me how’s the new Blink album, I’d say, “yeah look it has its moments“. That’s what it comes down to for me, there are moments in all these new songs that remind me of my youth, make me wanna join a band, skateboard, go to a concert, it’s all there, but it’s always fleeting and clouded. Standout tracks for me and must listens are The First Time, Heaven, Generational Divide, No Heart To Speak Of, Ransom and Hungover You. Big shout out to Generational Divide too, is it’s a 49 second fast paced punk track that needs to be played at maximum volume. Then after it’s done leaves you feeling lost as you jump into a more “modern” Blink sounding track.
I hope this album does influence the youth of today like they influenced me back in my day. It’s time to accept that this is the modern day Blink and you can’t recreate the magic of the past. For me, it could be better, but I won’t knock them down for giving it a crack and at least trying to keep up with a forever changing and evolving music industry.
ALD REVIEWS 