Blink-182

At 22 people of my age group seem to be talking about their “teenage” years with a sense of nostalgia which, to our parents’ generation, must seem rather odd. It was Ben Folds who predicted as much: “they get nostalgic about the last ten years before the last ten years have passed” he wrote once. Well, Mr Folds and Parents: you didn’t have to suffer the hiatus of Blink 182. It has been six years and it feels like a life-time has passed. As soon as I hear the opening drum patter of Ghost on the Dance Floor I am 15 again and doing my best Tom DeLonge guitar pose in my bedroom.

There is a real nostalgia with Blink 182’s post-hiatus Neighbourhoods: the guitar riffs, we’re heard them before. Natives channels 1994’s M+M’s and Ghost on the Dance Floor does its best Anthem Part II. The melodies are still “very Blink”. My parents did tell me “they all sound the same.” All these are not negatives! This is exactly what I wanted from Blink 182’s reformation.

To all 15 year olds in the here and now, listen to Neighbourhoods and you’ll hear a band who are professionals. Plain White T’s, Boys Like Girls, You Me At Six, all would not be doing what they’re so well if it was not for Tom, Mark and Travis. Trust me, I’m old now.

Lyrically Blink have matured. Gone are high-school references. Gone are “this is growing up.” Instead topics include, as might be expected, the traumas the band have gone through. Bereavements, however, don’t turn them into My Chemical Romance but, well, they’re a bit emo. God, that’s an old phrase. “Blink’s new album is really emo!” said my school friend in 2003 when their last album was released.

Overall: nostalgic but perfect.