Tags archives: tom delonge
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What year is it? Everyone is playing Pokemon and blink-182 is back. We discussed the latter in the last installment of AFP Music. Going off the first half of the band’s comeback album California, blink may be back, but they’re not the same. Although despite a slow start to a lengthy record, all hope isn’t lost. The last half a dozen or so songs prove that the band is still as good as you remember.
The first bonafide slow song on the record, "Home Is Such a Lonely Place" finds the band exploring newer territory. It has a little bit more of an electronic element compared to what blink usually puts out, but not so much as to earn a comparison to DeLonge's other band Angels and Airwaves. Another notable characteristic of the song is it's pace. Despite having written close to a dozen records over the course of their career, blink has rarely included a slower, acoustic song. Most bands have at least one per an album. This is the closest blink has come, the only comparisons being either “All of This” or “I’m Lost Without You” or “Miss You” all off of the blink-182. Despite this being their first stab at writing something so stripped back, the song is a success. It isn’t staggeringly special, but it’s touching and Hoppus sound great behind the mic. However, when Skiba takes his turn at vocals, it’s hard to not hear DeLonge in his repeated "without yew"s. The band knew DeLonge's departure would be felt on the record and they replaced him with someone who can sing their old songs,[...]
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Yesterday, blink-182 released their new album California. A much anticipated record, it’s their first since ousting founding guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge. Early last year, the group announced the lineup change and welcomed Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio as a third member. At a Blink show shortly thereafter, bassist Mark Hoppus introduced Skiba, then filling in on guitar, as our “new step dad that is going to be living with us from now on”. After years of ill-will amongst the band, it seemed the Hoppus-DeLonge divorce had finally gone through. Since joining, Skiba has racked up a good amount of performance time with the band and earned himself something of a warm welcome from the fanbase. He proved he could sing all the old songs and sound enough like DeLonge to keep with the sound, but add just enough of his own personality as to not come across as a carbon copy. The real test would be their record. It would definitively answer the question blink-182 fans had been posing since DeLonge left, “Who the fuck is Matt Skiba?”
The album opens with "Cynical". In the anxiety-ridden open verse, Hoppus introspectively sings over clean guitar. Before listeners have time to wonder whether this slower pace is the new Blink, Skiba and drummer Travis Barker breakthrough. What comes next sound definitely like the band. There are all the elements you’d expect from Barker’s fills to the back-and-forth of Hoppus and Skiba trading off vocalist duties. What started as a questionable way to [...]
