Despite the subtitle of their early hit “Damnit,” Blink-182 have never been interested in “Growing Up.” Since their inception in the early ’90s, they’ve always emerged with joyous irreverence, with dozens of songs that are frozen in adolescence. This is a band who went on the “PooPoo PeePee Tour” in 1998, who posed nude in the music video for their most popular song, who often sang of fingers in butts and profanities amidst lines about feeling disillusioned and misunderstood. Even in their later years sans founding guitarist Tom DeLonge, Blink-182 still committed to living in Neverland.
On the title track of ONE MORE TIME…, their ninth album and first with DeLonge since 2011’s lackluster comeback effort Neighborhoods, Blink-182 begin to reckon with their age, with death, and with Blink-182. “I wish they told us/ It shouldn’t take a sickness/ Or airplanes falling out the sky,” proclaims Mark Hoppus, referencing both his recent cancer diagnosis and Travis Barker’s horrific plane accident. “One More Time” may be sappy (“Do I have to die to hear you miss me?,” DeLonge questions in the chorus), but it doesn’t feel obligatory or performative. It’s interesting enough for the band to be writing songs about being in the band instead of half-hearted youthful anguish.
So, after years of interpersonal tension and near-death experiences, ONE MORE TIME… arrives as a love letter to each other and to life. It’s also a reaction to the 12 years since Neighborhoods; in addition to Hoppus’ cancer diagnosis and subsequent recovery in 2021, Tom DeLonge left Blink-182, continued fronting his other band Angels & Airwaves, and devoted a great deal of energy to research on aliens and UFOs. Travis Barker blossomed into a prolific producer and songwriter for both hip-hop and pop-punk’s newest class and is now married to a Kardashian. Meanwhile, Hoppus and Barker recruited The Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba to take DeLonge’s place for two (relatively weak) albums and hundreds of shows. That’s a lot of lived experience, but there was no guarantee they’d draw on it.
So much of Blink-182’s recent output has avoided the acknowledgment of their age. This time, however, they seem less interested in embracing themes of adolescence and eternal boyhood, and more interested in what a reunited Blink-182 sounds like as aging rock stars on the other side of oblivion.
Several of ONE MORE TIME…‘s songs revolve around the members’ personal histories — the near-death experiences, brotherhood, the trio’s slightly disparate musical interests, and above all, gratitude. They’re still occasionally profane and deeply silly, but the meat of the album is much more concerned with sincerity. The album’s title may suggest this is Blink-182’s swan song, but it’s more of a way for them to start over fresh — they might not get tomorrow, after all.
Blink-182 also dig back into the well of what’s worked for them in the past, both individually and as a group. Much of the album evokes their lauded 2003 self-titled LP — a major turning point for the band — in both sonics and lyrical content; the DeLonge-led “Terrified” and “Turpentine” recall songs like “Violence” and “Always,” with their loose-fitting structures and anxiety-ridden lyrics. “Terrified” in particular is a gem, and one of the best Blink songs in recent memory — there’s a trace of DeLonge and Barker’s hardcore-leaning side project Box Car Racer in the song’s blistering guitars and slightly menacing chorus, while also channeling the anthemic aspects of DeLonge’s work in Angles & Airwaves.
Meanwhile, Hoppus is undoubtedly the most earnest character on ONE MORE TIME…. His heart-on-his sleeve approach on “You Don’t Know What You’ve Got” is dripping with sorrow as he references the debilitating feeling of a grim diagnosis. “More Than You Know” feels lifted from the self-titled sessions, especially when DeLonge takes over for a deflated Hoppus to launch into an impassioned chorus. Hoppus’ and DeLonge’s handoffs to each other haven’t felt this seamless since “Feeling This.”
But even a revitalized Blink-182 still can’t sever themselves from their sloppiest tendencies. ONE MORE TIME… is certainly “mature” by Blink’s standards, but you won’t get any of that if you listen to the album’s foolish (and, frankly, atrocious) lead single, “Edging.” Where several songs serve as proper extensions of the DeLonge, Hoppus, and Barker’s trajectory as a trio, “Edging” offers little. They may pack the song with “edgy” lyrics and lines about being an outcast punk, but the song’s overly-sanitized production and lazy repetitions are bland and stripped of authenticity.
“Edging” is one of multiple songs that feel like they could land on either of the Blink albums with Matt Skiba. There’s “Blink Wave,” which truly sounds like the band sat together and said “let’s do Blink, but slightly new-wave,” creating something that doesn’t fit into either and instead becomes mostly forgettable. In fact, ONE MORE TIME… starts to lose steam right around when “Edging” shows up, and the second half of the album rarely reaches the heights of its opening eight songs.
Luckily, Blink-182 still have one of the best drummers in the world with Travis Barker. Even when songs like “Bad News,” “Dance with Me,” or “The Other Side” lack compelling melodies or lyrics, Barker makes up for it with exhilarating pace and ability, executing full-speed-ahead grooves that feel straight out of Take Off Your Pants and Jacket-era Blink. Hoppus recently praised Barker’s increased role in the band’s songwriting process over the years, and it’s clear that ONE MORE TIME… benefits greatly from Barker’s attention to detail and musical intelligence.
The production on ONE MORE TIME… also suits the band well. Songs like “When We Were Young” and “Terrified” are rendered more visceral by unbelievably loud guitars, so much so that DeLonge’s anthemic choruses come second to the full-force instrumentation beneath him. DeLonge’s raspy grit provides ample atmosphere, and both his and Hoppus’ harmonies are perfectly mixed. After all, with or without Matt Skiba, Blink has often employed a hi-fi sound that seeks to be shiny and crisp, and ONE MORE TIME… shows that they’re not interested in going back to the “basics” of their first two albums, Cheshire Cat and Dude Ranch.
Instead, with their legacy cemented and 2000s nostalgia at an all-time high, they’re looking back at the sounds from Enema of the State to their self-titled and attempting to reinterpret them with the graces of age and wisdom. The stakes are higher on ONE MORE TIME…, the impetus to create something real and impactful more urgent than it’s been in years.
It’s still a relatively safe album, all things considered, but for Blink-182, new ground isn’t necessary. They just want to get together and play again, and this time, they vow that they won’t take it for granted. At long last, we hear a weathered Blink-182 stumble upon the same truth from 26 years ago — this is growing up.