It's an unpopular opinion but Neighborhoods is a great album, super underrated, with a ton of undeserved hate. It has a lot of catchy songs, very few skips for me, and it's definitely more mature than anything new they have made since
I think as time has passed more people have grown to appreciate the album than when it first came out. In 2011 I think everyone was wanting them to sound just like they did in 2003, but eventually started to love the mix of new styles and influences the more they heard them. The Skiba years helped that too, I know I'm not the only one that would choose Neighborhoods over any blink without Tom.
Ghosts on the Dance Floor is the other side of Not Now. Not Now is about someone dying and wanting to say goodbye to the person they love but can't, and Ghosts is about someone being reminded of someone they love that died
This album is masterpiece, fuck what old fans think about it. It picks right where Self Titled (2003) left and made better, vocals harmonies, synts, effects, killer drums. It got everything that made everyone likes blink. Faster guitar riffs, toughts about love and lonelyness.
Me personally I think Up All Night was the perfect song for the comeback considering it was an unfinished self titled song and got fans hyped. Hard to say It’s not my favorite song from the album even tho all the other songs are great
Thank you for this. This is my all time favorite Blink record and I think it's perfect. "Up All Night" came out on my birthday (July 14, 2011) AND I saw them live the day that the record came out. It holds a special place in my heart and it's a constant in my car stereo. Keep up the great work!
I really enjoy neighbourhoods. It’s not a bad album at all, just at the time it wasn’t what the fans wanted/ expected, and that’s okay. There’s honestly not much about blink I don’t like. Topyj, Enema, Cheshire, untitled, Dogs eating dogs.. I could listen to all day and on repeat and not get sick of it. Neighbourhoods is a good listen to break up that cycle.
Thanks for the video! Neighborhoods saved my life back then. One of my favorite albums ever. Love the atmosphere and the mature topics. Love to listen to this during fall season 🍂 fits perfectly
I liked your review overall, I too felt the album was disconjointed but will keep giving more listens after this review. I gotta say I’m shocked that you haven’t listened to California or nine. As an avid blink fan since enema came out, it took me time a long time to come around to these albums with Matt, but I highly recommend checking them out. There’s some great tracks and Matt really brings a cool element to the band. Let me know what you think!
My dad passed away just under a week before Up All Night dropped. It was quite the lift to hear the new song from my favorite band ever as I drove to the funeral. Ghost on the Dancefloor felt like it was written for me. I enjoyed the album quite a lot. Barker was right to an extent, it could've been better and some great moments were probably left on the table. That being said, I still love the album. Great video!
I hate when someone from a band goes solo or starts another band then comes back to the band and wants to make the band sound like there solo/side projects stuff like Tom did with blink or Gwen Stefani did with no doubt
For singles if they did Ghost on the dancefloor,up all night,After midnight, release hearts all gone before the album as just a track from the album we would be looking back at a different outcome probably. Post album release make wishing well, mh.4.18.11, Even if she falls,this is home singles. Then top it off with making a video for Kaleidoscope to promote the blinkumentary. The outcome of the album probably would have been different if they had enough label support and did this.
The video creator fails to mention that they did actually release Hearts All gone before the album came out through a hidden Easter egg link on their website.
yay new changing the subject video now about the Blinkers which I listened their whole discography quite recently and about particularly that album. I mean I haven't watched the rest yet but at least there's a blink one I know I can watch now. I just hope you'll at the very least cover Untitled too
I was so excited for this album. When my deluxe box showed up on my doorstep, I couldn't stop listening to the album. My (surprise pre-order gift) glow in the dark bunny, and I loved it at the time. The hope of more blink, mature blink, was so exciting. Then the lust fell aside, and Tom pulled a Tom again. Which is understandable AVA was hitting a good stride and blink was being kinda forced. The whole album felt like they were being held at gun point to make. They didnt seem into it at all. I still listen to the album every once in a while, then i pack it back away to the shelf after a couple spins. It truly is a middling album. A solid 6.5 out of 10.
I have loved Blink since i was 8 years old and my mom bought me the Dude Ranch album from a yard sale. Im 34 years old now, got a Blink tattoo whenever i was 23(obviously) ive heard every song, bought a bunch of Blink shirts and have listened to each album and EP they have released since. Even Boxcar, +44 and even the Transplants.
Neighborhoods is a top 3 blink album for me. Its a natural evolution of the 2003 album they really havent expanded upon since. I love Nine and One more time but those are def sideways albums creatively. Which not a huge deal good music is good music. Im not sure theyd ever go back to evoloving that 2003 sounds but this album is fantastic
Kaleidoscope is actually mostly about blinks issues. Mark confirmed this on his discord a few years back. It could be about both or Mark didn't want to say what it was actually about back then.
I was only 17 when this record came out in 2011 but I was ecstatic about it and love it from day one. I understood why those who were there for blink’s “prime” didnt like it, but having grown up with the Self Titled and AVA records, it was a natural progression in my eyes that they had embraced the sound and lyrics that they did. I will forever love Neighborhoods and will fight anyone about it that its one of Blink’s best records 😂
13:26 ahhh! Us Blink fans have our own tastes lol Dude Ranch is #1 for me. Neighborhoods is toward the bottom. I remember buying the STANDARD CD on release day and everyone else buying the deluxe. IMO those extra deluxe songs aren’t very good. Great video!! You put a lot of work into it.
I don't think Skiba was given much creative input, seems like it's was mostly Mark and Feldman. I think an album with Tom and Skiba would be much more interesting.
I see this album exactly as I see the Matt Skiba albums. I get that people can love it and maybe even be their favourite, I just don't really see it as a Blink album. They didn't write it together as a band and it (to me) sounds disjointed. Either way, really good video and I appreciate the background info. Agreed it came out a lot better than it should have based on the circumstances it was made in.
I can agree on neighborhoods but the skiba stuff is the blinkiest blink will ever get beyond 2003. Its wild to me how anyone could consider those not to be blink, its pure classic blink. And the chemistry was amazing. Much better than Travis & Mark forcing themselves to work with tom yet again. It felt like Blink was really alive for the first time since my childhood.
@@TheBrandonnnn I've seen Blink live on every tour starting since self titled (had TOYPJ tour tickets but they pulled out cause of Toms back.) It's easy to say this stuff in hindsight but at the shows there wasn't really any animosity on stage. This is coming from someone at the Manchester show which would turn out to be one of their last before the (first) break up. I want to see Blink. Blink isn't Matt. It can be the most fun and wholesome show ever (which it was when I saw them) but it still isn't Blink. If we are talking album-wise then the chemistry is irrelevant. Chemistry is easy to have on record. We have differing opinions and that is fine. Just replying to yours. for the record, seeing them on the one more time tour was second best to my first time seeing them play Leeds Fest just before self titled came out. It was definitely the most fun I had seen them all have on stage together.
Not sure if it's placebo but the album's playability definitely suffer from me knowing that they weren't recording in the studio together. For me it's still a tough album to try and sit through, besides GOTDF and Up All Night
I been liking blink since flyswatter, if you know you know (before Buddha) . I find my self according to Spotify and Apple Music, Neighborhoods is my top playing album… favorite perhaps?
Also mark different feel betrayed when it came to boxcar racer until much later when the press was making headlines like blink-182 over? Meet boxcar racer and they literally did that just because negative news gets more attention and that attention actually managed to stress out the band members and that’s where it began. Mark had no issues with boxcar racer he even sang on the song elevator on the boxcar racer album.
Honestly, Mark's pretty fragile and sensitive at the best of times. I honestly think he would have taken issue with Boxcar whether Travis joined or not.
Good thing you saved that “dude ranch was ok” comment for the end or I would have stopped watching from the get go. Jk, but seriously, from the get go.
i feel like i remember everyyyyyone in the fanbase hating neighborhoods for yearsss after it released but it seems like theres been a big shift in the last few years. idk, i always thought neighborhoods was genius tho, probably my second (mayyyyyybe 3rd) favorite blink album. The deluxe tracks especially are so good, even if she falls is one of their best songs ever and snake charmer is great (despite the kinda cringe lyrics). Honestly in general im more of a tom fan and i think this is another one where toms writing really blows marks out of the water (fighting the gravity) lol. I think tom is more experimental and pushes marks songwriting and mark is more safe and grounds toms songwriting but imo its pretty obvious that didnt happen here. either way i think neighborhoods greatest strength is how serious it was, it really felt like a mature release that followed the masterpiece that is untitled tonally and in expanded on where they left off. Thats my biggest issue with the skiba era and even omt, it feels like a cheap and safe fall back to what they know people will like rather than taking the real risk they took with untitled or neighborhoods
the shift is that gen z/alpha started taking over the fanbase, just like they did with weezer, and absolutely ruined these bands with their awful takes
You should listen to Nine, though. Cali is nostalgia bait, sure, but they definitely went a bit out there on Nine. Probably the most emo thing from blink members since S/T or BCR
@@TheBrandonnnn I just feel the bands Weezer started making veering away from their style of playing and writing. Where bands like Green Day havent but are from the same era. I'm an Alkaline Trio Skiba fan (or was) and his current stuff ain't my cuppa either. I can't blame kids who weren't around in 2000 for the blame of a band writing lame songs like edging. I'm confused how hard would it be to do another take off your pants styled pop punk record.
Very solid analysis. I was 22/23 years old at the time this album came out and a fan of the band since 99 when I was like 11 lol. When this album came out I had the actual hard cd and I played it quite a bit. I always thought it was had a very charming vibe to it and sonically it hit all the marks. It was a good record to put on after you had smoked some pot getting ready to bang out your girlfriend😂
As someone who is an expert on the dick joke band's lore, I kinda love how unceremonious and awkward their reunion announcement at the Grammys was. Travis is just like, "We used to make music and now we're going to do it again, I guess." Meanwhile, Mark and Tom still very clearly hate each other considering they're standing as far away from each other as possible without falling off the stage. And that wouldn't be as big a deal if it didn't mean that Travis had to open the award announcement with one hand due to the other being broken. I'm glad blink's second reunion has gone much better.
@@TheBrandonnnn I'm not talking about the band breaking up, wise-ass. I'm talking about the band reuniting specifically with Tom a second time. They reunited the first time in 2009, and the second time in 2022.
I kept giving Blink 182 a chance after the early 2000s self titled album... never got back into them. The bands start up to the early self-titled album was golden. Getting travis from the aquabats... legendary. Dude ranch is still my favorite album of theirs. Although enima, take off your pants and self titled hit nicely. Everything else after is kinda meh. Its like New Found Glory (another jerry finn band) Nothing gold can stay, self titled and sticks and stones are the best from em. Catalyst is meh as a whole. It is what it is. 🤷
Hot take - Nine, is a great album. California is more anthemic in tone, while Nine feels more like a parallel universe take of TOYPAJ. Neighbourhoods is a great album, I've owned every cd blink has released, and it got the stick purely because people felt like a reunion meant '99-'01 Blink
Man neighborhoods was and is the best album ! I say it’s even better than one more time and California . I just remember listening to it on a loop when it came out , the only songs I don’t like are marks songs like Mh 4 18 2011 and fighting the gravity
I always said this was an amazing album and everyone on the blink subreddit said I was crazy. Now the are all talking about how good it is. Ahead of my time once again.
Whoa, wait. Tom Delonge wasn't the one diagnosed with cancer. Mark Hoppus was. You're going to lose a lot of viewers just 5 or so minutes in. I'm one of them. Sorry, get your facts straight.
