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No matter how bright the past may be, resorting to nostalgia to fix the present's mishaps is never the best idea.
Think about it: would you ever fight with a bow and arrows against an enemy armed with thermonuclear bombs? Probably not.
The blink-182, instead, arrive at the most talked-about of their record appointments equipped with nothing but slingshots and blowpipes.
And how could it be otherwise?
"I don't care about being on time," they sang in "Time" ("Flyswatter"-1993), let alone caring about being connected to the present.
In previous episodes: it's June 2021 when the news of a stage four lymphoma diagnosed to Mark Hoppus shakes the entire corporate punk scene, and from then on it wouldn't be long before Tom DeLonge rushes to his side, finding himself with Travis Barker all back in the same room together for the first time in nine years.
When Angels & Airwaves announce the cancellation of their European tour in February 2022, it's clear to everyone what is about to happen: DeLonge is back in.
Enthusiasm and emotion on one side, a generous dose of more than understandable skepticism on the other. In between, the goodbye to Matt Skiba, a heavyweight of American punk-rock completely mortified during his stint as a 'blinker.'
All's well that ends well?
Go figure...
Because "One More Time" is an album that claims the frustrated energy of a band too absorbed in its own mythology to innovate the formula it helped to create.
There's a lack of composite mood, of a leitmotif, of logic. More than an album, it seems like a greatest hits: throughout the tracklist, the deepest part is less deep than the much-maligned "Nine," and the more superficial tracks seem oddly below the capabilities of DeLonge and company.
It's really complicated to talk about such a disconnected and bloated work, inexplicably full of itself without having much to say.
It would be easier to talk about the entertaining "Dance With Me" without having to get through a tedious joke about masturbation.
It would probably be honest to talk about "Blink Wave" as a legacy of the previous formation.
It would be easier to overlook the banality of "Edging" if not for the embarrassing lyrics
"I'm a punk rock kid
I came from hell with a curse
She tried to pray it away
So I fucked her in church"
"Turn This Off!" sounds more like a plea than a provocation, with a confused DeLonge regarding cancel culture
"If you're offended by these words, fuck you, please!"
At the end of the 17 tracks, the Los Angeles trio seems exhausted, as if worn out by a graceless chase towards self-narration at all costs, rather than being guided by genuine compositional curiosity.
Blink-182 wants to find eternal life in a state of permanent regression.
It's quite amusing, while it lasts...
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