Neighborhoods
| Blink-182
Neighborhoods
Neighborhoods is the sixth (or seventh if Buddha is considered their debut) studio album by American rock band Blink-182, released September 27, 2011 through DGC Records and Interscope Records. Their first album of new material in eight years (the longest gap between albums to date), its recording followed the band's breakup and later reconciliation. Due to conflicts within the trio, the band entered an "indefinite hiatus" in 2005 and the members explored various side-projects. After two separate tragedies regarding the band and their entourage, the members of the band decided to reunite in late 2008, with plans for a new album and tour. It is the first blink-182 album produced by the band members without the help of an outside record producer and the final studio album to feature the Enema of the State-era lineup of the band, as Tom DeLonge was dismissed from blink-182 in January 2015. The band's studio autonomy, tours, managers and personal projects stalled the recording process, which lasted from shortly after the band's February 2009 reunion to July 2011. The band developed Neighborhoods in separate studios and regrouped at various periods to record. The band's numerous delays in the recording process resulted in the band canceling a European tour and the label setting a deadline for the album to be due. The trio wrote lyrics regarding such subjects as isolation, confusion and death. The band infused inspiration from each member's various musical tastes to form a unique sound that recalled their separate upbringings, leading the trio to compare the album to separate neighborhoods. Neighborhoods was released to mixed reviews from critics; some felt it was a natural evolution from the band's previous releases, while others found it stale and disjointed. The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and "Up All Night" and "After Midnight" were released as singles, with both attracting modest success on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart. Despite this, Neighborhoods did not sell as well as earlier releases and the band would depart from Interscope the following fall. The group would later look back on their comeback album with divided feelings; DeLonge would admit that the recording methods perhaps created less unity within the group.="Wikipedia"
Critic Reviews
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Consequence of Sound
The adolescent juxtaposition was a strength as much as a signature. So, given the epic dramatics of their last studio release, it’s not a surprise that Neighborhoods is even doomier and gloomier than its predecessor. The band has seen their fair share of obstacles over the past eight years, from typical grievances like divorce to the tragic plane crash that nearly took Travis Barker’s life and indirectly led to the death of the band’s good friend DJ AM. It only makes sense that they’d amp up the pessimism and plunge into darkness, and much like Blink-182, that’s both the weakness and the strength of Neighborhoods.
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AV Club
Unsurprisingly, tragedy heavily informs Neighborhoods, which plays less like a joyful reunion album and more like a darker continuation of 2003’s atmospheric Blink-182. Although Blink-182 has long since left its past as a bare-bones punk band behind, overwrought rock isn’t its forte, either. Neighborhoods finds a nice balance between the two, but it could still use a little less fussiness.
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ALT Press
These songs definitely sound new and fresh, with some truly exciting musical ideas worked in . Ultimately, Neighborhoods is a slightly awkward entry in the band's catalog that shows as much potential as it does flaws.
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Dying Scene
While the album has it’s good points, it doesn’t have any songs that compare to their older classics. It may be another seven years before we’ll see an album that compares to ‘Enema of the State’ or ‘Dude Ranch’ but for now let’s hope that Blink 182 doesn’t end their career with a mostly filler album like ‘Neighborhoods.’
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BBC
Neighborhoods is both a love letter to those around the band and those they’ve lost along the way; on the cover are the names of several nearest-and-dearests, graffiti marked on the walls of the pen-drawn cityscape. Neighborhoods could easily have been a disaster – that it’s not, and actually a very successful endeavour, is worthy of substantial praise.
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Slant Magazine
Blink-182 isn’t a band well-suited for maturity; they’re at their best when their tone is bratty and juvenile and their pop hooks are polished and massive. And like many rock acts who have awkwardly attempted to step into adulthood, Blink-182 leans too heavily on “prog” and gloomy images as substitutes for depth on Neighborhoods, their first studio album in eight years.
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Pop Matters
The whole idea behind Neighborhoods is that each of these parts, much like neighborhoods in a city, serves to provide a unique feel that, when combined, create an even more interesting and expansive whole. To discount this album as a mish-mash collection of each side’s material is to completely miss the point.
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Drowned in Sound
That Neighborhoods maintains a dark, isolated feel is unsurprising given the circumstances of its recording. The band laid down each of their parts in separate studios, as 'that tension is what makes Blink sound like Blink', according to dutifully optimistic bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus. Neighborhoods; Blink sound like they’re working against rather than with each other throughout the album’s duration.
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We Got This Covered
Even after the nostalgia blinders came off, Neighborhoods still stands as one of the strongest releases of the year. It is an album that heralds not only the release of a beloved band, but the progress that they’ve made in their time apart. It is an album that looks back with a new perspective and looks forward with a smile. Even when stuck in the darkness of DJ AM’s death, the loss of Jerry Finn, or the personal demons that have haunted the band for years, there is still a glimmer of hope when looking forward.
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Windy City Banner
Neighborhoods, carries an even darker tone than their self titled release. The authentic sound that has always brought immediate recognition to the band within the first moments of comprehension is still very alive in each tune. The music of the band has emerged over the last decade surviving age, a hiatus, and change within the core of the punk trio. Considering all judgments, there is nothing wrong with giving a band a chance to show that they’ve grown up.
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All Music
Neighborhoods certainly is a different beast than any of the cheerfully snotty early blink-182 albums, as the band picks up the gloomy thread left hanging on its eponymous 2003 album, the one that was connected ever so slightly to “Stay Together for the Kids,” the hit from 2001’s Take Off Your Pants and Jacket that signaled some deeper emotions behind the goofy façade. Very little of that slapstick is retained on Neighborhoods.
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Mind Equals Blown
While there is definitely promise on the record, especially in the first half, the record is overall just average. Since it is the first record after the long breakup, it’s expected that there will be some kinks. Hopefully on the next record (if there is one), the band will have it ironed out and deliver another strong batch of songs.
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Alternative Addiction
It’s hard to say if this is the best blink-182 album that the band has made because that’s subjective (especially with blink.)This album is on par with the quality of the last record and it shows a few things that each member has learned over the past eight years.
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Antiquiet
On their return album Neighborhoods, that sense of youthful goofball zest is gone. Depression, addiction, loss and the leading emotion of the album – pouting, desperate heartache – are inescapable cliches locked within high school lyricism and romantic urgency, stuck in a place Blink fans left behind when freshman year came to a close.
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