Ah. Blink 182. The epitome of immature, loved and hated pop-punk. Now, they are breaking up, unfortunately. They're moving on to bigger, better things, and possibly better bands. The unique sounds their of explicit , catchy , pathetically bad songs and everything in between are ending, and they gave us this to have as a final memory. A Greatest Hits Collection, basically of singles that span their career. But, that's what it's supposed to be.
Back in February, Blink announced that they were going into an indefinite hiatus. Or in simpler terms, creating a gap in their career. But factor in the 'indefinite,' and you have an undisclosed amount of time; you don't know how long this will be. Naturally, everyone was shocked, disappointed and upset, assuming they were gonna break up and we were never gonna hear from our beloved Blink 182 again. The band has moved on. Bassist Mark Hoppus plays for other bands, as does drummer Travis Barker. However, guitarist Tom DeLonge remained silent. But I will say more about this later.
NOTE: I haven't bought this CD. I just collected all the songs I have, downloaded the ones I don't and put it on a blank CD.
To the Greatest Hits. From
Cheshire Cat to the self-titled CD, Blink has released single after single, one after another. The first two songs on this album,
Carousel and
M&Ms, are off the album
Cheshire Cat. The recording is poor, given the fact that it was released on Grilled Cheese Records (>_>). The singing might turn you off, since Tom's and Mark's voices are scratchy as hell, out of tune and annoying, but this is old school Blink; you just gotta love it. The guitar and lyrics are very simple, but that's just how it is, and it fits in accordingly with the songs. Perhaps it would be catchier if the singing and everything were better quality, but it's all good anyway.
In comes
Dude Ranch, often called their biggest success.
Dammit and
Josie were big hits, but
Dammit was much more successful. That guitar riff and better singing than the last album make it wonderful. The production still isn't the best, but the chorus of Dammit slows down and really sucks you in.
Josie is a step down from Dammit, but a lot of songs are. Simple power chords and bass over a solid drum beat make the song listenable.
Now here is
Enema of the State, the most debated album by Blink I have ever seen. People say it is easily Blink's weakest album, while others compare it to
Dookie, aiding in the sound of the pop-punk of today.
What's My Age Again?,
All the Small Things, and
Adam's Song were all off of this album, and I honestly don't hear anything wrong with them. If by now you have not heard
All the Small Things, you have not been living on this planet. If you hear the "All the small things" Tom sings and still don't recognize it, get away from me now. A bunch of power chords meshed in with drums, bass and "Na na na" sung over and over is amazingly catchy and pleasantly surprising. I heard that
Adam's Song is responsible for a death because a kid turned on the one-song repeat on his CD player and listened to it repeatedly. He listened to the lyrics and killed himself because he was depressed. That should tell anyone something about the power of that song’s words and message. Catchy melodies, riffs and bass lines are less than amazing, but much more than acceptable. The drums are still their crazy selves.
Now turn on
Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, that other big album.
The Rock Show,
First Date, and
Stay Together For the Kids are featured from that album, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with them either. They have incredibly catchy verses and choruses, bass lines and guitar riffs, not to mention that dude sitting behind the drumset playing the sh*t out of the drums. Once again, there's nothing mind-blowing here on any of these songs, but you don't really notice it until you over-analyze. It is pretty much the very simple bass and guitar parts over the incredible drumming by Travis. That's it. Amazing how popular these guys are, isn't it?
Now on to their latest, and ultimately their last, album,
Blink 182. Some call it a failure, but Tom himself calls it a masterpiece. Either way, the songs off of this album,
Feeling This,
I Miss You ,
Always and
Down are very good choices, even if they were their only ones. Once again, simple instrumental, aside from the drums, over much better singing from Mark and Tom are amazingly catchy and popular. Everyone has heard
I Miss You and
Down, and I personally love them. There’s the same formula again, simple instrumental over the switching lead vocals by Tom and Mark. I think there’s some cello in
I Miss You, which adds a very interesting sound, and makes the song more beautiful, I think. I actually didn’t know that
Feeling This was a single, except that I think it’s on a football video game (EA Sports?). It’s an interesting song, starting off with some weird effect and a crescendo. The
Always video is confusing as hell, as the screen is split up into three parts, each with its own person (either Tom, Mark or Travis). A very quiet song, very somber and sad. And catchy too, by the way.
Not Now is also on the CD, but I was informed by a fellow Sputnik-er that it wasn't released on the CD until this Greatest Hits was released. This is also very somber and quiet, with "God has a master plan. I guess I am in his demand" in the first verse. Very emotional, addicting and well worth a few good listens. Very experimental and creative drumming by Travis, with hits on every tom you can think of. Very simple guitars and bass in the chorus (there's barely any in the verses) add a nice touch to it. I can say the same thing about everything: very simple song structure. Yet they keep pouring on the hits and the fans keep pouring on their love for the band and the songs they produce. Very catchy, not spectacular, entirely acceptable.
Man Overboard, and
Another Girl, Another Planet are also on the CD, but not on one of the major albums.
Man Overboard is on the
Mark, Tom and Travis Show. It's a dark song, with Mark singing "So sorry it's over" repeatedly. Very catchy guitar riff, and same goes for the bass. I know that
Another Girl, Another Planet were previously unreleased, and that it has that same title by another band,
The Only Ones. I'm not sure if it has a real file to download it with. The one I downloaded sounds like some old school rock (a-la
Beatles) and a touch of classical music feel to it. Starts off quietly, then the guitars kick in and play a poppy guitar riff. Very cheesy, but it's not that bad. A voice unfamiliar to my brain starts singing. Strange, I don't like it. Too poppy for me and oldies feel to it, and you can blame that on the singing. The guitars actually get pretty fancy, playing a little solo, and the end is pretty fast and impressive.
And there you have it: possibly the end of Blink 182 as we know it. Overall, it's just a Greatest Hits. A bunch of singles thrown together to form a long pop-punk album. Only difference is that it spans Blink 182's career, from
Cheshire Cat to
Blink 182. It includes Grilled Cheese Records, when the production was crappy, making the singing crappy. They have gotten much wealthier and have been able to afford a better record company and get better quality. This makes their music so much better. From
Dammit to
Down, this sums up some of the best of Blink's career. However, I do wanna get back on what I was saying at the start of the review. While Mark and Travis were moving onto new bands, Tom remained silent for about seven months trying to organize his life, trying to figure out what he was going to do. Turns out, he is now part of a new band, Angels and Airwaves, and he says their goal is to be the greatest rock band to ever live. I'm not gonna say any more, just give you the info on mtv.com:
[url]http://www.mtv.com/bands/b/blink_182/qa_feature_103105/?headlines=true[/url]
