ONE MORE TIME...
blink-182’s ninth album—and first in 12 years with guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge in the lineup—is far from a self-satisfied victory lap. Even after all these years, the band’s irrepressible cheekiness animates their insouciant riffs, whirlwind drums, and yelped vocals. They may be elder statesmen of punk rock at this point, but they’re still kicking against anyone who might get in their way. The reunion of DeLonge with bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker (who produced *ONE MORE TIME...*) grew out of the members dropping their past differences in the wake of Hoppus’ cancer diagnosis. “I feel like there’s a real sense of brotherhood with us,” DeLonge told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe during a full-band interview. “Like any brothers, you have your little spats over the years, and you grow apart. You come back together. You’ve always got a foundation, you’re connected. You’re still inseparable energetically.” That connection is apparent throughout *ONE MORE TIME...*, which Barker calls “very collaborative.” It calls back to blink’s past at its outset, opening with the speedy “ANTHEM PART 3”—the third part of a trilogy that dates back to the band’s *Enema of the State* era, although this time out, things are more optimistic than the angst-filled first two installments: “If I fall, on some nails/If I win or set sail/I won’t fail, I won’t fail,” DeLonge wails as the song comes crashing to an end. *ONE MORE TIME...* has other moments of introspection: The title track is a very blink-182 take on a power ballad, with DeLonge and Hoppus musing about life being too short to not get over past differences. The anthemic “WHEN WE WERE YOUNG” turns the old phrase about youth being wasted on the young into fuel for one last trip to the mosh pit and closing track “CHILDHOOD” pivots on the always pertinent question, “What’s going on with me?” Not that *ONE MORE TIME...* is exclusively built on self-affirmations and serious business. “DANCE WITH ME” opens with a gag about self-pleasure before jumping off into a peppy chronicle of lust, while the bouncy “EDGING” channels love-’em-leave-’em brashness into a giddy power-pop jam. The brief interlude “TURN THIS OFF!” manages to channel gags about bad sex and old scolds into 23 seconds of blissful riffing. *ONE MORE TIME...* represents a new era of blink-182, although the most important aspect of the music Barker, DeLonge, and Hoppus make remains the same: “Every single time that we’ve just put our heads down and done our own thing,” said Hoppus, “and write music that the three of us love, that’s important to us—it has served us well.”
The classic Blink-182 lineup reunites to huff the fumes of their best material.
There’s no doubt One More Time… is the band hitting a new peak. They’ve set aside all the bullshit and honed in on what it is we – and they – love about Blink 182 – they’re trying to make us laugh, they want us to feel, but most of all they want us to…
After brushes with mortality and a protracted absence for Tom DeLonge, the reunited trio sound simply happy enough just to be rocking out again .
The Mark, Tom and Travis show returns for good – and they’re armed with one of the best, most consistent records of their whole career.
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Blink-182 have returned with their first album in four years. For a band whose legacy was concrete by the 1999 release of their fourth album (the iconic,
Ellis Heasley reviews the new album from pop-punk's finest Blink-182! Read the review of 'One More Time...' here on Distorted Sound!
For every triumphant return to form on Blink-182's ninth album, ‘One More Time...’, there’s an uninspired dud.
Their shtick wears thin at times but the reunited band’s ninth LP has genuine moments of introspection about friendship and mortality
blink-182 - One More Time review: apologise for the past; talk some shit, take it back