Sometimes you can return to tour roots while also making the future now, and that is what blink-182’s “One More Time…” feels like. This is an album blink fans have been waiting for - rooted in their pop-punk DNA, but a collective cohesive direction to progression.
“Anthem Part 3” is aptly titled and a perfect opener, as it’s a fast punk song straight out of the 1990s with moments that are uplifting, and anthemic.
It’s fitting that the video for “Dance With Me” is Ramones tribute since the chorus is very Ramones-inspired, and the opening riff sounds like a young Tom DeLonge trying to emulate Stephen Egerton of the Descendents. The song is very much blink- fast, fun, and catchy.
MORE BLINK CONTENT: The top 5 blink-182 shows I’ve attended/ covered.
A past issue with blink’s struggles has been a divide on writing what they think people want to hear versus writing what they should sound like- at this point I want songs about beating death rather beating off- “You Don’t Know What You’ve Got” is a prime example of this. While there are no “joke songs” on “One More Time…,” there are two fast crappy punk rock throwbacks, and plenty of catchy choruses and familiar-sounding riffs that are innately blink. The title track is heart-tugger that details the band’s trials and tribulations and what has led Mark Hoppus, Travis Barker and DeLonge back together.
“More Than You Know” is exactly the modern way blink should sound and feels like it came straight out of the “Neighborhoods/ Dogs Eating Dogs” era. “Bad News,” “When We Were Young,” and “Other Side” all feel like old-school blink with a new twist, while “Turpentine,” “Blink Wave,” and “Childhood” are on a whole- new level
“Fell In Love” is a poppier jaunt that would benefit from some production tweaks like louder guitars. “Edging,” which came out a little more than a year prior to album as official first single, was a nice welcome-back track that sounds like an odd, yet fun mix of Stiff Little Fingers, TSOL and All-American Rejects. “Terrified” is an aggressive, heavier song that was the lost Box Car Racer track that was not the previously unreleased Box Car Racer song “Dance With Me” (nor was this turned into new blink song of the same name).
Besides the interlude, and the two under 30-second hard core songs, any song on “One More Time…” could be a single
By MIKE DAMANTE
If you are a fan of pop-punk, Mike Damante’s book “Hey Suburbia: A guide to the emo/pop-punk rise” is out now, and features exclusive interviews with blink-182, New Found Glory, Alkaline Trio, Descendents, and others.