Blink-182’s new album is shaping up to be a bit of a throwback, harking back to the days of their self-titled record.
Back in 1999, Blink-182 released Enema Of The State, propelling themselves to the top of the charts with their irreverent humour, catchy songs, and high-energy live shows. Two years later, and the group followed this up with the equally-brilliant Take Off Your Pants And Jacket.
However, Blink-182’s next record was a bit of a stylistic departure, with a much darker and serious sound than previous albums. Officially untitled, the record became known as a self-titled release, and would serve as the band’s last album before their four-year hiatus in 2005.
While the group have since released two more albums, and lost founding member Tom DeLonge in the process, they’ve been hard at work recording a follow-up to 2016’s California – their most commercially successful release to date.
Recently, bassist and vocalist Mark Hoppus revealed that he wanted to “push it and do different things and take Blink to places where we haven’t been before”, indicating the new album will feature a bit of a change in sound.
“We want to do with our band what we did in 2003 with Untitled,” Hoppus noted, “Where we take our foundations and go off in completely weird directions.”
Check out Blink-182’s ‘Feeling This’:
Now, drummer Travis Barker has echoed Hoppus’ previous comments, explaining to Billboard the new album will sound more like their self-titled record than anything else.
“I’m really excited because we’re about 70 percent finished with our album,” Barker stated. “I feel like this is the closest we’ve come to something like [2003’s] Blink-182 since that album, which is one of my favorite Blink albums by far.”
“I feel like [2016’s] California was similar to [1999’s] Enema of the State and [2001’s] Take Off Your Pants and Jacket: reestablishing the band, giving fans what they really want and expect from Blink,” he continued.”
“Now that we got that out of our system naturally, we’re not writing like that this time. It’s more experimental. It’s not like you’re listening and thinking, ‘Oh I’ve heard that before, oh I can compare this to this other song.’ With this album we’re reestablishing new songs, new rhythms, new ideas.”
Check out Blink-182’s ‘Cynical’:
“Where I look back at California, you could compare ‘Cynical’ to other fast songs we’ve done,” Barker continued. “I could put ‘She’s Out of Her Mind’ down as a brother-sister record to ‘Rock Show’ or ‘First Date.'”
“The songs on the new album don’t have any brothers or sisters. They don’t sound like anything we’ve done before. Songs on Self-Titled like ‘Feeling This’ and ‘I Miss You,’ I really feel like those didn’t sound like anything Blink had touched on before. I just know we’re doing that again. That’s exciting to me.”
As for when the new album might finally see the light of day, Barker explained that we might only have just a few months to wait before we hear their latest effort.
“April, May or June, if I had to guess. That’s the target,” he explained. “It’s kind of loose. But I feel like it’s happening right around there.”
Check out Blink-182’s ‘She’s Out Of Her Mind’:
