Track Listing

1. Feeling This
2. Obvious
3. I Miss You
4. Violence
5. Stockholm Syndrome
6. Down
7. The Fallen Interlude
8. Go
9. Asthenia
10. Always
11. Easy Target
12. All Of This
13. Here's Your Letter
14. I'm Lost Without You
15. Not Now (UK Bonus Track)
16. Anthem Part Two (Live UK Bonus Track)
17. Feeling This (Video)
18. Obvious (Video)
19. Down/The Fallen Interlude (Video)
20. Violence (Video)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16068 in Music
• Released on: 2003-11-17
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Enhanced, Explicit Lyrics, Extra tracks
• Dimensions: .22 pounds
• Running time: 72 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Save one salty reference to sporting an embarrassing "boner during PE", the eponymous Blink 182, the band's fifth studio album is mercifully bereft of the references to farts and turds that have littered the lyrics of preceding million-sellers such as Enema of the State. Both Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge have become proud dads and thus have familiarised themselves with the fragrant pleasures of the 3.30am soiled-nappy change. Suddenly, shit isn't funny anymore, which is probably just as well seeing as Blink 182's comedic turns make the average Carry On film look like something by Moliere. Otherwise it's pretty much business as usual. Guitar buzz, girl troubles and teenage hormone dilemmas, big chanting choruses come flying out like volleys of snot from a pit bull terrier's nose and the whole thing sounds like Bob Mould's Sugar fronted by the imaginary snivelling younger sibling of Dean Friedman. While "Easy Target" bucks the trend by indulging in snarling minor-chord meltdown and Robert Smith of the Cure is commendably mopey on "All of This", to call this loveably hummable buffed-up racket "punk" would be wholly disrespectful to the much cherished memory of Sham 69 or the Lurkers. The fans will love it, of course, but the uncommitted will find themselves somewhat boner-less, even during PE. --Kevin Maidment

CD Description
This is the fifth studio album from US punk rockers Blink 182 following up the hugely successful 2001 release 'Take OffYour Pants And Jacket'. The album sees the band start a fresh with a new mature punk sound doing away with the frat-punk they had become known for. The album also includes the single 'Feeling This'.

Customer Reviews

Very Different
blink-182 are one of those bands that seemed like they would never grow up but as this album proves, they have. I'm a huge fan of their earlier releases like Cheshire Cat and Dude Ranch and I have to admit that when I first listened through the album I was shocked. Where were the jokes, the funny songs and the great riffs? Had they put the wrong CD in the case?

After I'd listened to the album a few more times it really grew on me and there are many outstanding tracks on the album but at the same time there are still tracks which make you want to press skip on your CD player.

The musicianship is amazing and there are lots of strange effects in almost every song with layers of guitars and one song uses 4(!) basses on the outro so there is always something new to pick up on each time you hear the album and great depth to every song. You can really tell they spent a long time on each song to make it 'perfect'.

If you are a blink fan chances are you'll buy this album anyway to make up your own mind about it, but if you are still not sure whether to get it or not, I would say buy it. You may think it's the worst thing you've heard in ages and blink are no-more (like me) but I can assure you three or four listens later you'll be hooked and realise that, whilst not the greatest blink album, it's right up there.

A new beginning
I've always had a soft spot for this band because they got me into the alternative music scene. And, I'm pleased to say, that soft spot hasn't hardened thanks to this new album.

It's different. And not in the way that "Enema Of The State" was different from "Dude Ranch", or different in the way that "Take Off Your Pants And Jacket" was different from "Enema" (though you have to have listened to both of them relentlessly to notice how). The sound is different. It's heavier. Lots of bands have released new albums this last year and promoted them as "heavier" and/or "experimental". Few of them have lived up to that promise. This one does. Sure, it's not heavy enough to genre-shift into the Finch fold (though there were moments where it sounded like it would), nor is it experimental in the way Radiohead are supposed to be.

This isn't an album you can imagine former Blink-alikes such as Bowling For Soup or A Simple Plan ever making. Gone are the purile jokes completely, as are the songs about dating. There's not even a novelty track on here. So not only have Blink grown beyond themselves, but they've also put a distance between themselves and those bands that have sought to emulate them. There's a certain unexpected dynamism, then, that perhaps means Blink will survive when other pop punk acts fall.

So if not Blink, then what does it sound like? Well, it's still Blink. Tom DeLonge's vocals continue to grate, perhaps more now than ever, and Mark Hoppus continues to be the better singer. For some bizarre reason, The Cure's Robert Smith turns up to sing one song with them, and Val Kilmer's ex-wife Joanna Whalley reads out a letter for this album's answer to "Adam's Song".

On first listen, though, the two bands that came to mind straight away were Box Car Racer and 'A', funnily enough. Box Car Racer isn't surprising, seeing as it was Tom DeLonge's side project with the Rancid boys. It's not only the more thoughtful lyrics that have carried over from that defunct band. As for 'A', I have no idea...

Musically, it's not breaking any new ground. However, it's still interesting. It's very much a studio album, evident in the use of a flange effect on drums and overdubbed vocals. Not very punk rock, but I don't think they're claiming to be anymore. I liked the regular use of keyboards, and the increased distortion on the guitars stopped the perpetual chirpy pop feel that has defined the previous two albums.

Whether all that's going to sit well with the rest of their fans is another matter, though.

THEY'RE BACK
Blink 182 return and how they have returned.Theyre music has changed loads.This album contains piano in almost every song,violins in always and some wierd thing but it sounds really cool.With such songs as stockholme syndrome and the acoustic i miss you which are both contenders for the second single off the album you can listen for yourself how they have changed and they've changed for the better.Marks voice has got even more clean on this album.If theres one thing that lacks on this album theres not enough of him singing that is my only low point.My favourite songs are all of them honestly they are that good.Hopefully this wont be there last.Blink are serious now and they've hit us hard