Opening up like a turbo charged millenial version of the Cure's "Disintegration," Blink-182 sets the tone with "Ghost on the Dance Floor." It's all swirling keyboards and punk rock drum fills before settling into a melodic dystopia that's more Brave New World than 1984. If Blink-182's music used to represent the heady buzz of 90's punk pop then this is the hangover. The rays of their once sunny southern California punk pop is now shot through with streams of darkness.
Conceived as a reconciliation of sorts, Neighborhoods is an excercise in bridging common grounds from what used to be enemy territory. Propelled by Tom Delonge's arena sized sonic ambitions, the album is anchored by Mark Hoppus' austere faith to the church of punk and its ability to keep the band's reach from exceeding its grasp. The real star here, however, is Travis Barker. Honoring a progressive tradition in old school punk that predates hardcore, he manages to mine punk for more stylistic advancements than Topper Headon, Stewart Copeland and Chris Frantz combined. His presence ultimately takes this album from an ambitious statement of artistic intent to a lazer guided missile of execution. And while Neighborhoods displays neither the stylistic expansiveness nor the loose limbed ambition of its eponymous predecessor, it still succeeds with it's disparate but singular vision.
essential listening:
Ghost on the Dance Floor
After Midnight
Snakecharmer*
This is Home
*denotes deluxe edition track
