We take you on a track-by-track tour of Blink-182’s bloated ‘California’
Blink-182 say farewell to Tom Delonge and hello to Matt Skiba, and produce something pretty boring with new album California. But it’s not all bad. DAVID JAMES YOUNG troubleshoots.
It’s been a difficult few years for anyone who considers – or, at least, considered – themselves a fan of one-time skate-punk hopefuls Blink-182. After a muddled and confusing album in 2011’s Neighborhoods and a world tour that drummer Travis Barker was unable to entirely complete, guitarist Tom Delonge grew estranged from the band and eventually (despite his pleas to the contrary) was removed from the band. In his place came Alkaline Trio alum Matt Skiba, with the new-look version of the band eventually settling in to create California, the first ever Delonge-free blink album.
Of course, you all know the story by now. The only question that remains is whether the destination was worth the journey. Here’s an extensive, beat-by-beat tour through California.
1. ‘Cynical’
The ‘Carousel’-esque bass chords provide a comfort zone for Hoppus’s vocals in the song’s red herring intro before some classic Barker fills blow out the speakers and Matt Skiba arrives with the first of many (read: many) pick slides. As a matter of fact, the entire song could be considered a red herring, considering the surprisingly-solid use of Skiba within the fold and its focus more on the high-energy approach of 2001’s Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. The hook (“What’s the point in saying sorry now?”) is rock-solid, doing a bang-up job of psyching fans up for blink-182 Mach 3.0.
2. ‘Bored To Death’
By now, the entire music world has had its say on ‘Bored To Death’. The lead single from California resulted in many nodding heads, many shaking heads and even a fair few scratched heads. If one thing has become clear about ‘Bored to Death’, it’s that the song is a grower. Sure, there’s a few questionable lyrics (“Rescuing a tiger from a tree”?), and the parallels to +44 are both justifiable and hard to ignore. That’s not even touching the god-awful, cliché-ridden video. Still, there’s a reason that the song has endured on radio and is still being talked about – it’s one of the few songs on California that is able to compromise and engage with both blink’s past and its present. It’s worth a few extra listens in order for it to properly set in.
3. ‘She’s Out Of Her Mind’
We need to address the elephant in the room here: It’s weird to hear men in their 40s singing about being in love with “this girl”. Sure, it’s supposed to be a timeless turn of phrase, but by employing it the band are giving off a major sense of desperation to not be grown adults with families and a house in the suburbs. As Hoppus so helpfully pointed out in the previous song, it’s a long way back from 17 – about 27 years, in his case. This might feel like nitpicking, but there are far broader issues with the song too – its “eh-eh-eh-antisocial” pre-chorus poorly apes Rihanna a good eight years too late, while the Bauhaus reference will be lost on anyone that isn’t a sad music nerd.
4. ‘Los Angeles’
What’s even more trite and obvious than naming your album California? Naming a song ‘Los Angeles’. And even more than that? A chorus that goes “Los Angeles, when will you save me?” Oy vey. Here, the band attempts to throw Matt Skiba a lead vocal bone, but he is a fish completely out of water as the song gives way to Travis Barker’s production-heavy drums and cookie-cutter alt-rock. As the record progresses, it’s becoming more and more apparent that neither Hoppus nor Barker have a clue what to do with Skiba.
5. ‘Sober’
‘Sober’ suffers from two major faults of post-reunion Blink-182: Travis Barker completely hogging the mix of the song with his flange-heavy and Bonham-lite drum patterns; and a completely-uninspired chorus in the form of a “na na na” that even Simple Plan would look down their noses at. The attempts to modernise the band’s sound via Barker are also rampant in the production elements of the song, too, with trap-flavoured trigger-pad claps working their way into the song and pop sheen blunting any and all possible edges protruding from its structure.
6. ‘Built This Pool’
Skiba himself, heard at the end of the song after a take, sums up this 14-second idiocy better than anyone else could: “Is that really it?”
7. ‘No Future’
Here, we see the band’s attempt at resurrecting Enema of the State and Take Off Your Pants… by ostensibly writing what sounds like ‘Anthem Part 3′. There are parts that fall off the wagon – another “na na na” part is unfortunate, and the “We’re Not Gonna Take It” drums-only breakdown at the end was completely unnecessary. Still, this song allows for redemption on both Barker and Skiba’s behalf – the former’s verse-one drum pattern is gob-smacking and sounds fantastic, while the latter is finally allowed to properly sound like himself and not a generic Delonge stand-in during the second verse. A wise single choice.
8. ‘Home Is Such A Lonely Place’
Do not adjust your playback system of choice – that’s not ‘Hey There Delilah’, it’s actually Hoppus and co. genuinely attempting a white-guy-with-acoustic-guitar ballad. It’s a string-driven snore of a song, and not even a last-minute sprint to the finish line care of yet another overly-busy Barker fill can wake you up from this instantly-skippable sap.
9. ‘Kings Of The Weekend’
In perhaps the only modern-era blink song to openly-acknowledge the band’s age and the fact they actually have shit to do during the working week, Hoppus and Skiba toss their mid-life crisis into a watered-down throwback that shows more of its aching bones and knobbly knees than it would care to let on. If Korn’s dubstep album was the sound of a mid-life crisis incarnate, then surely ‘Kings of the Weekend’ is Blink’s version.
10. ‘Teenage Satellites’
And we’re right back to Hoppus and Skiba pretending they’re coming of age again, even though that’s closer to what Hoppus’s own son is doing. It’s bad enough to have two songs back to back that directly reference “Friday night”, but Skiba sounds at his most generic within the three-minute fold of this horrendously-named track. We’re in B-side territory here, which really leaves one to wonder what didn’t make the album if it was decided that this beige wonder cut the mustard.
11. ‘Left Alone’
The vocal interplay between Hoppus and Skiba is a little better mapped out here, but “Left Alone” is bogged down by even more generic grey area – there’s an Axis Of Awesome-worthy four-chord progression (‘Dammit’ was enough, guys) and even a cavernous ricochet of “woah-oh”s bouncing around the mix. There’s also another Travis Barker solo moment that completely overrides the song – you can tell that he is throwing his weight around a lot more after being somewhat sidelined on the untitled 2003 album and on Neighborhoods.
12. ‘Rabbit Hole’
So close, yet so far away. On ‘Rabbit Hole’, we’re treated to a brisk and sprightly rocker that recalls The Mark, Tom and Travis Show‘s sole studio cut, ‘Man Overboard’. It has all the potential to be one of the album’s stand-outs, and yet it sets itself back in several key ways: “Dear head/Shut up” might be one of the worst lyrics of the year; while the chorus of “I won’t go down that fucking rabbit hole” might be their most gratuitous expletive since Enema‘s ‘Family Reunion’.
13. ‘San Diego’
By now, California feels more like an endurance test than a studio album, so it’s completely understandable if even the die-hards haven’t made it up to this stage. Still, it’s worth sticking around for this, which stands as one of the best songs on the album. Skiba’s right at home, the mix of mid-tempo balladry and a driving hook recalls one of the band’s finest moments in “Adam’s Song” and there’s even a few self-referential nods in there. “We can go and see The Cure” nods to Robert Smith, who duetted with the band on 2003’s ‘All Of This'; while the line “can’t go back to San Diego,” the city in which the band was formed some 24 years, is an innermost confession that the entire world surrounding the band has completely shifted. It’s also easy to see the song’s level of instant accessibility be partially credited to Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump, who assisted in writing the song.
14. ‘The Only Thing That Matters’
Short, sweet and sharp. Here’s a pop-punk cruiser that would be at home on any given Tony Hawk or American Pie soundtrack, Enema or even Alkaline Trio’s Goddamnit. With a two-minute runtime, this hooky and chirpy number gets the job done in style. It’s a doughy-eyed love song in the style of ‘Going Away to College’ with a slightly quicker tempo for good measure. The reality is that it’s one of the few tracks on the album that is honestly hard to fault, which makes its inclusion all the way up the other end of the record even more puzzling.
15. ‘California’
Holy hell, did Hoppus and co. save the worst for second-last. The title track to the album makes ‘Home is Such a Lonely Place’ sound like ‘All the Small Things’. The clichés arrive thick and fast in a syrupy onslaught, from yet another “na-na-na” section to its hideous “Hey, here’s to you California” hook that you can imagine the kind of people that say “all lives matter” singing along to around the camp-fire while their sweaters are still tied around their shoulders. It’s a bloated, boring ode to a bloated, boring suburban life at the end of a bloated, boring album.
16. ‘Brohemian Rhapsody’
Oh, go fuck yourselves.
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Yes, there is a killer EP in here. If this was a five-track, 14-minute release comprised of ‘Cynical’, ‘Bored to Death’, ‘No Future’, ‘San Diego’ and ‘The Only Thing That Matters’, you’d have a top-notch release on your hands. A return to form, even. To get there, however, you have to wade through an unbelievable amount of bullshit that shows they have no idea how to make this The Mark, Matt and Travis Show. It’s too new, too soon and too early in the process. One of the main issues that was brought up with Tom’s contributions to Neighborhoods was that he was making the band sound too much like Angels & Airwaves. Without him on California, it’s somehow worse: The band now primarily sounds like nothing. Not even Blink-182 knows how to make a Blink-182 record anymore.