NINE - Blink 182: Review
is a California pop punk band who blew up in the late 90's with a breakout record Dude Ranch in 1997 before dropping a smash hit with their 1999 record Enema Of The State. After dropping two more commercial hits over the next four years the band took an extended hiatus in 2004 after Tom DeLonge left the band before they reunited in 2011 to release the commercial and critical bomb Neighborhoods. After this Tom once again left the band in 2015 and they replaced him with Matt Skiba of Blink's often maligned pop punk contemporaries Alkaline Trio. This is the groups second release with Skiba as a member.
Review By Lavender:
Despite the fact that I wasn't the right age to truly enjoy Blink 182 at my most emotionally potent I have to say that a lot of their tunes, particularly on Enema Of The State and Blink 182, hold up incredibly well. Even tracks from some of their earlier releases such as Carousel and Damnit really hit right some days. Unfortunately since I became a conscious listener I have been far less impressed with the group starting with 2011's dreadful Neighborhoods an album that saw them trying to mature by force but awkwardly hold onto some of what made them popular back in their heyday and it missed completely. While I still didn't love 2016's California I did think it was a an improvement where the band had cohesively transitioned into a lifeless aging pop punk band that could still assemble a few tight choruses and some snappy guitar riffs. Both of those features are mostly gone completely on Nine as Blink 182 have lost all of their self awareness and assemble one of the most out of touch rock records you'll hear in 2019.
I mean come, it's 2019, it's Blink 182. If you've been following the songs released in the lead up to this record I apologize because you had to hear one of the worst tracks the record has to offer in I Really Wish I Hated You. While it is a very very bad song it is far from a runaway for worst track here. Happy Days is a waking nightmare, Darkside and Run Away feature some absolutely vomit inducing vocals from Matt Skiba that I cannot stand and the album ends on back to back terrible tracks with Hungover You and Remember To Forget Me.
The First Time reminds me a lot of Neighborhoods in the way that the band tries really hard to sound like its 1997 again and come up very short. No Heart To Speak Of and Heaven weren't directly offensive songs but they were the kind of pop punk nonsense that I skipped for the most part on California. Blame It On My Youth has some punchy and intricate percussion from Travis Barker that make it one of the more bearable songs here, although I would never want to listen to it by choice again. Pin The Grenade is an honest to god decent track but Matt's vocals are completely unbearable and make it a difficult listen whenever he is on the song. On Some Emo Shit is a melodramatic and emotional track with some absolutely dreadful verses that almost recovers on the hook. Another quarrel I have with this track is that it isn't any more emotional or emo than anything else here and I have no clue why this is the track they chose to call On Some Emo Shit.
Despite all the awfulness there were some genuinely bearable songs on the record starting with Black Rain which has some cheap lyrics but they at least manage to illicit some emotion and the performance is pretty good compared to everything else here. The best moments on the record by far are Ransom and Generational Divide tracks that are each under a minute and half of sheer explosive punk music with throttling instrumentals and an angry energy. While I don't think I would really enjoy a full length record of Blink doing something like this it is certainly better than what they deliver on the rest of this album.
This has to be the bottom of the barrel for Blink 182, after a career of many underwhelming releases this is seriously the worst Blink 182 record yet. I'm hoping that going forward Blink 182 find something to give their new music purpose, or if they can't they just stop releasing it alogether because every new Blink record that comes out tests my patience even further whenever I may get the inclination to listen to What's My Age Again or First Date again. 2/10
