blink-182
One More Time...

Those familiar with blink-182 know well how tumultuous the relationship between Tom DeLonge, Travis Barker, and Mark Hoppus has always been.

After three albums together and enormous public success, the first split occurred in 2005. Parallel and alternative projects followed (Box Car Racer, Transplants, Angels & Airwaves, +44), then Travis Barker's terrible plane crash, and the inevitable reconciling of the trio. This led to the reunion in February 2009, accompanied by a new album (Neighborhoods) with Interscope Records and a digital EP (Dogs Eating Dogs) on an independent label. Finally, a new seemingly irreparable breakup, six years later, distanced DeLonge and brought Matt Skiba from Alkaline Trio closer. The rest is history.

It was Mark Hoppus's serious illness (diagnosed in the summer of 2021 and overcome three months later) that brought DeLonge back to base, prompting him to reflect on how inappropriate it was to once again lose the course. From this premise, “One More Time”, the new album from the reunited trio from Poway, California, was born.

Produced by Travis Barker and dedicated to the late Jerry Finn (the historic producer who passed away prematurely at only 39), “One More Time” is an album built on the foundation of positive nostalgia, driven by the suggestion and repayment of the wait for longtime fans who never lost hope of seeing their favorites together again.

The first single, “Edging”, released in the fall of last year, was met with great enthusiasm but didn't particularly warm hearts. With its slow, sing-song rhythm, it only has the merit of bringing DeLonge back behind the microphone, with that nasal voice that is the band's trademark.

The opposite happens with “Anthem Part 3” and “Dance with me”, which throw us back in time, delivering exactly what was expected. In the riffs and snare, there are echoes of blink from “Enema of the State” and “Take Off Your Pants and Jacket” (which contain “Anthem” and “Anthem Part 2”), carefree and raring to create chaos. If the first is disguised as a classic, the second, which is an explicit homage to the Ramones, also manages to forcefully enter the mind with its catchy, party-like chorus.

Among the fun and lightheartedness, there is also a lot of reflection. In the seventeen tracks (perhaps too many), there's talk of a rediscovered friendship but also of difficulties, suffering, and regret. This is particularly evident in the slow, eponymous ballad “One More Time”, which has already entered the hearts and minds of fans (and beyond). Tom gently sings his repeated mea culpa, reflecting on the trivial reasons that led to the separation and how pride extended the time apart:

I wish they told us
It shouldn’t take a sickness
Or airplanes falling out the sky

Do I have to die to hear you miss me
Do I have to die to hear you say goodbye
I don’t want to act like there’s tomorrow
I don’t want to wait to do this one more time

The same purpose is pursued with “Terrified”, a song initially destined for Box Car Racer's discography but eventually included in the blink orbit. The lyrics reference the maturity reached eighteen years earlier with the self-titled album (blink-182) and the shift in sound that release brought. Another change is decidedly noticeable in the third track, “Fell in Love”, where strings, drums, and vocals are accompanied by synthesizer and vocoder, as directed by Travis Barker, influenced in this regard by recent collaborations with Gen Z artists (Machine Gun Kelly and Willow Smith, among others).

There are also interlude tracks like “Turn this off!” and “Fuck face” (in the same style as “Happy holidays, You bastard”), or “Hurt” (introspective and relaxing with “few words”) that make you break out and smile satisfied, always in the spirit of the nostalgia operation, which finds its flagship in “When We Were Young”.

But there are not only odes to the past in this new work. Because blink shows they are still incredibly adept at their craft, as we understand with “More Than You Know”, “Bad News”, “Other Side”, and especially “Turpentine”. Technically remarkable, all three draw from their glorious past but also bring fresh air, proving they are far from a self-serving fossilization. “Turpentine”, in particular, represents the band's new style, which after more than thirty years is mandatorily finding a more mature direction.

There are also weak points, identifiable in “You Don’t Know What You’ve Got”, “Blink Wave”, and the closing “Childhood”, which are a bit too forced and suffer from slowness and repetitiveness. Perhaps a more selective and less verbose tracklist would have been beneficial to the album's economy, but this is not enough to diminish it.

Ultimately, this “One More Time” is a truly enjoyable and well-crafted work, despite its faults. While it has nothing to do with the peaks reached by their historic successes in the second half of the '90s, it is still highly appreciated.

Only by carefully listening to each track can we understand how Tom, Mark, and Travis are invoking the past to give a new and definitive meaning to the future. They want to tell us that it's possible to create a new album together, already thinking about the next, without necessarily having to sit and leaf through one full of old yellowed photographs. Even though it's undeniable that remembering still helps to grow.

Once again.