I wouldn’t know these guys if I met them in the street but I happened to videotape Miss You last night and by golly it is a wonderful bit of music. And the drummer only uses brushes and sits right on the front of the beat so I end up tappin’ my toes.
There is obviously more of this band that I could listen to. Could Blink182 fans tell me where to start - remembering that I adore Miss You.
Well, the latest Blink CD is a radical departure from the rest of their work. I’d just say to go with that one. Dude Ranch and Chesire Cat are pretty good too though. Box Car Racer is Tom’s ‘serious’ side project, and that also may have something that you’re looking for.
Go with their latest CD (self-titled). Anything else and I suspect you’ll be disappointed.
Thank you. I’m sure you will keep up the fine standard of Doper recommends.
I simply snicker at all the Blink fans who claim they were good before they went mainstream. And Enema of the State ushered in the hundreds of clone pop punk bands that for some reason are thriving as we speak (I swear to God Blink 182 must have started a college that taught all these bands to make the EXACT SAME TRITE MUSIC).
don’t ask, just do yourself a favor and get some Pixies or Pavement CDs. You’ll thank me later.
While I heartily agree that Pixies and Pavement albums are must-haves for any fan of rock music, I have to admit that the new Blink album is pretty darn good. It’s no classic, sure, but it’s well-written and earnest (!!) power pop without the “entire album consists of the same four-chord progression” feel of their older stuff. Plus, I think it’s undeniable that Travis Barker is a damn good drummer.
don’t ask- the most recent album (the self-titled one) contains “I Miss You,” and is also the only one worth getting unless you *really *dig the pop-punk sound. Keep in mind that Blink was the one of the first mainstream bands to really put the “pop” in “pop punk,” and all of their older stuff was thusly targeted towards mildly rebellious teenagers who nonetheless get all their music from MTV. Not that the latest is any less commercial (I don’t think that the “emo” feel is any coincidence, for example), but it does come across as more heartfelt, and demonstrates a level of songwriting talent that the hobble of the pop punk genre never really let them show off.
Regardless, they are 3 guys, who are now into their 30’s and yet they STILL sing about being a teenager. That’s just sad. I am a teenager, and though I don’t write songs, if I put my mind to it I could write more mature music than they do. Maybe I wouldn’t mind Blink 182 as much if they didn’t give the impression that they actually take themselves seriously.
Lyrics and music, two different things. The only comment I made on the former is that they were more “heartfelt” than previous Blink offerings, which is undeniable simply because it’d take a literal Sarcasm Machine to be less heartfelt. I agree that the lyrical content of the new Blink album is ultimately no more interesting or thought-provoking than anything else they’ve done, but the music itself is a definite step up. Considering that I never cared enough about what Blink was saying to formulate an opinion on their lyrics, this is (for me, at least) an improvement. 
Now, on a strictly musical level, I disliked Blink’s previous albums for the formulaic composition of the songs (I think a good 90% of their old songs use the exact same chord progression), and they’ve clearly made an attempt to step beyond that on the new album. There is more dissonance, some creative use of synthesizers, less power-chord distorted guitar, more thought placed on texture, color, dynamics shifts, etc. The end result is that each song feels much more individually distinguishable than the monotonic pablum of “Take Off Your Pants and Jacket” or “Enema of the State.”
Like I said previously, it’s certainly no OK Computer, but it definitely stands alone as a pretty good pop album.
I’m an unashamed Blink 182 fan. Despite my indie tendencies, sometimes I just want to shelve the Pixies and the Sonic Youth for 45 minutes and put on a whine-infused So-Cal record. It’s both out of nostalgia (Blink accompanied me through high school) and because I think they write pretty good pop songs.
That said, if you like I Miss You, then you probably shouldn’t get anything but they’re latest, self-titled album. I’d only recommend getting anything earlier if you reckon you’d be into a Green Day-meets-The Cars hybrid (and I’m being reasonably charitable there).
The latest album is a lot more diverse than their previous works, though it’s not all like I Miss You. It is, for the most part, pop-post-punk rather than pop-punk. But it’s very well produced, and though there’s some lyrical clunkers (albeit, none about being a teenager, as Soapbox Monkey suggests) you’ll probably enjoy it if you don’t think too hard about it.
If you really want something earlier than the self-titled album, go for Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. It shows incredibly slight hints of their future direction. Incredibly slight.
And if you’re interested: according to the liner notes, the brushed drums and stand-up bass in I Miss You was an attempt to mimic the Cure’s Love Cats.