You Can Be My Wave

Historically speaking, blink's leftovers and bonus tracks tended to be some of their best material. There's the bridging EP They Came to Conquer... Uranus that features Wrecked Him and Zulu; the best skate punk the band ever created. Sadly, these two tracks didn't make it on to Dude Ranch while a new version of Waggy did. Man Overboard sadly wasn't finished in time for the release of Enema of the State; a shame considering it could have buffed an already nearly perfect pop-punk album. Bonus tracks Don't Tell Me It's Over and Time to Break Up clears every single song on Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, which is saying something considering that is a perfect pop-punk album. The I Miss You b-side, Not Now, might be my favourite song of theirs on account of it being equally as biting as it is tender. Snake Charmer and Fighting the Gravity were only available on the deluxe edition of Neighbourhoods, the latter of which was an odd, ethereal experiment that I found to be quite intriguing. Even the second disc of the expanded edition of California had tracks that were way more interesting and bold than what was selected for the original album. 6/8 was the heaviest the band had sounded since Tom DeLonge's departure, and Hey I'm Sorry as well as Long Lost Feeling brought the melancholy along with Travis Barker's creative drum grooves, and some of Mark Hoppus' most tasteful vocal melodies. I list off all these examples to demonstrate that when blink graces us with extras, you can rest assured that we're getting quality and not stuff that was better left on the cutting room floor.

Presumably, these songs were all recorded during the same sessions as last year's comeback record, and therefore, it falls into the same technical pitfalls. The drums still suck. There is so much unnatural processing that completely eliminates the feel and intricacies of Barker's playing. In addition to this, the compression on the drums sometimes causes the cymbals to have this headache-inducing wobble. It's most noticeable on Everyone Everywhere. I'm also noticing more so in this batch of songs when compared to the last, that DeLonge's voice has to be propped up by a lot of processing. You can really hear him struggle on tracks like Cut Him Off, or pretty much whenever he's not belting or shouting.

Putting the technical stuff aside, there is a little bit of gold to be found among the ten new tracks that make up this second installment of ONE MORE TIME.... NO FUN kicks off with an absolutely epic intro. Organs pad the background as layers of DeLonge's vocals envelop. Fireworks, in the form of random bursts of drums and guitars, erupt at various points. It feels like he is delivering a punk rock sermon. When the song fully kicks in, it sounds like classic blink. I also found the lyrics to be pretty poignant. At one point, DeLonge muses about the commodification of punk rock. Sure, some people feel some type of way about that, but DeLonge confesses that his experiences as a pop-punk star can also fall into the same trappings as other mundane routines. We're all playing the same game, a rat in the race. The following track, ALL IN MY HEAD, divulges doubts and insecurities as to whether the band still has it in them to perform night after night. Hoppus and DeLonge both crack cheap juvenile jokes, but it doesn't put up a large enough defense to hide the sleepless nights and the perception-altering drinking habits. The main riff on this track is exhilarating; a heavy, half-time groove as tremolo picked guitar chords soar over top.

On a softer note, I actually really enjoyed CAN'T GO BACK. I found the repetitive drum groove and the lone, continuously plucked guitar note phasing in and out to be very meditative. Lyrically, it's a little vague, but that didn't stop the song from hitting me in my feels. DeLonge also delivers his best, more measured, vocal performance of the collection. These three tracks I enjoyed the most, but I wouldn't say any of them really caught me off guard. There was one track that did puzzle me a little bit, and that was EVERYONE EVERYWHERE. Initially, it appears to be a fairly straightforward, rockin' cut. However, Hoppus comes in with this robotically performed verse, accentuated by a vocoder. DeLonge has a pretty aggressive shouted passage at some point and the bridge feels like some mosh pit bait. Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill, but the collection and arrangement of ideas on this track seems bold and experimental in a similar way Fighting the Gravity did years ago.

As is tradition with additional blink tracks, some cuts on ONE MORE TIME... PART 2 I think went over better than the album's core tracks. The rest of the tracks are decent, and certainly of similar quality to last year's comeback. If you really enjoyed this new blink chapter, then these ten new songs will surely leave you satisfied. I'd also like to mention that I'm noticing some lyrical themes that are maybe suggesting that not everything seems to be going swimmingly for the trio in the mental health department. There's lots of themes of self-doubt, not being terribly enthused about touring the world over again, etc. If you're a fan of blink, and you are well aware of their rocky trajectory, this could come across like a sign that this will be just another short lived chapter. Now I hope that is not what the sign is pointing to as I would really like to see them get back in the studio and make some more music. Perhaps with a more competent producer next time. Let's hope that ONE MORE TIME means one more run together as the classic blink lineup, and not one last album.