On October 20, 2023, renowned pop-punk band Blink-182 released their ninth studio album, One More Time. This is the first album since Neighborhoods to feature Tom Delonge, a beloved member of the band who was present during the making of many of their most definitive albums back in the early 2000s and late 1990s.
The album consists of a wide variety of different vibes, including songs with a mellow, laidback pace and others at a meteoric, invigorated pace, fueling the listener with energy. The album features DeLonge’s famed vocals and guitar work, Barker drumming with extreme potency, and Hoppus adding his crucial vocals and bass playing to compliment the rest of the band.
With a total of 17 songs, the album lands at a total listening time of almost 45 minutes. A few of the songs seem like filler, but the album is a valuable listening experience if you are a fan of the pop-punk genre. However, there are a few songs that caught my attention during my first listen through of the album:
The first was “Anthem Part 3”, which has a very similar air to the song “No Future” from their 2016 album, California. The song intro contains DeLonge and Barker on their respective instruments slowly building up speed leading into upbeat drums, classic guitar riffs, and DeLonge’s swift vocals. The song seems to be about someone who either passed away and then got revived, or had a near death experience from drug use. After this near-death experience, the narrator decides to pursue their hopes and dreams in life since their life has been saved. The song overall has a positive message trying to inform the listener that even if life gets difficult, always pursue your dreams.
The song “Fell in Love” seems very important to the progression of the album. The song starts with an intro that seems very similar to the song “Fake Out” by Fall Out Boy, which is quite melodious and calming. This song also contains electronic synths throughout which gives it a nice charm. The theme and story are very noticeable in this song, the narrator reminiscing about an ex and all their past experiences together. At first, the narrator says that they don’t miss their ex but then continues to contradict themselves throughout the entire song. “Fell in Love” switches to the familiar, fast paced tone fans are used to once the intro tapers off.
One of the more slow-paced and mellow songs, “One More Time” gives a different vibe in the track listing, playing right after “Terrified,” one of the more fast paced songs. The song is an exclusive duet between a piano and an acoustic guitar. “One More Time” is clearly about the band being a lot more introspective on their past experiences. They also mention various events that brought them together after two departures of at least one of the band members, like Hoppus’ battle with cancer and when Barker survived a plane crash in 2008. Overall, the track focuses on the band and their unique life experiences.
Lastly, the final song on the album called “Childhood” has the band thinking about their childhoods and how everything seemed better back then. The song features a relatively moderate pace, not too fast and not too slow. The narrator in the song wonders what happened to all the time during their childhood since it is now 2023. “Childhood” is a decent closing track for the album which sums up the nostalgia that inspired the whole making of the album.
Overall, One More Time by Blink-182 is a decent album with some highs and some lows. Again, it does have some filler songs which seem to lack some creativity and sound like generic Pop-Punk songs. The song to stand out to me the most had to be the title track “One More Time” because of it being an emotional ballad highlighting the struggles of the band throughout the years. Out of the most recent albums released by the group, California seems to be of the best quality and the albums released earlier in their careers will forever be classics.
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