'Blink-182'

Have you seen the show MTV's been running this month about the new Blink-182 album? It's about the year it took to write and record; explaining how the guys responsible for writing "First Date" when they were 30 have all grown up so much since the last time they played together. It's nice to see pop-punk's resident jokesters trying to be a real band after years of kid stuff. It'd be nicer if it had worked.

If it's true, as the boys have said, that the new self-titled Blink-182 album needs to be explained to be understood (which it doesn't), the explanation would go something like this: Blink-182 is an emo record with really fancy production. There are a couple pop songs with emo lyrics, and a couple regular Blink songs infused with emo sections. There's a song with Robert Smith of The Cure, and a song or two with some synth and stuff, which is pretty emo, too. Sure, there are darker lyrical turns (some embarrassing, some decent) than you're used to from Blink, and for a band with two guys who can barely play guitar, there's some listenable music here. But it's ultimately an emo record made by a punk band, and as either genre, it's disappointing. And, just like other Blink before it, this is a record for first-crushes and first-breakups, and, speaking of firsts, it's not designed for anyone who's made it past the first year of high school.

Blink-182 isn't boring, or tossed off or a complete miss. It's just sort of all been done before. If this were Blink's first album, and I were still 15, I might really dig it. But it's not, and I'm not, and so, you know, whatever.

-- Reviewed by Paul Thompson