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When Your Heart Stops Beating is better than California ever was


Mau5

Mark's WYHSB is "better" than Mark's new blink-182  

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  1. 1. Do you agree or disagree?

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    • Disagree
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Simply put. Fight me. I haven't listened to that album straight through in quite some time, and yet - after being extremely bored with what Mark has been putting out in recent years, going back in time and hearing this album come up on shuffle was like a breath of fresh air. The lyrical work, the experimentation, the vocal changes - literally everything blink-182 under the helm of Mark should be. If blink-182 were to rebrand When Your Heart Stops Beating, I feel that everyone would agree that blink was taking a step in the right direction - as opposed to the overwhelming majority of people believing blink is taking a step backwards with their recent releases. Hell, they even had a catchy as fuck release, much like Bored to Death - and with the right exposure, could have been a huge hit (peaking #14 under the +44 name, versus Bored to Death peaking between 1-6, and also comparing that to a arguably much lesser quality radio-friendly release of blink's Up All Night, still reaching a #3 spot).

What I believe might be happening, is that I feel like Mark may perhaps feel the "constraints" of the pop-punk genre (though self-inflicted and gladly welcomed) when it comes to blink's namesake, versus (+44) gave him free reign to do as he pleases. However, considering none of Deluxe in my opinion could really be considered experimentation, I believe Mark is completely fine just phoning it in with his niche rather than progressing as an artist. 

So, my question is - do you agree or disagree? 

 


 



 

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WYHSB is easily mark’s most accomplished statement as a songwriter and musician. it successfully stays true to his roots while not being afraid to push boundaries either. his lyrics carry a vulnerability found nowhere else in his catalogue (besides perhaps apple shampoo/adams/go) and they’re so well crafted it makes you really wonder why he’s doing what he’s doing now. that said, it’s not totally perfect, and has areas it could improve in. but those are few and far between, really. being lazy and fearful of writers block probably led to where we’re at, but WHYHSB stands as one time mark had something to prove, and fought his way through to make something totally his.

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I really think Mark found Plus 44 to be a failure. When you are use to success on a grand scale and suddenly you are playing clubs; I think it broke him. Why didn't we get anymore Plus 44? Why can't Mark write songs to save his life?

Mark and Tom are total opposites, Tom can't be broken no matter what, Mark is so fragile, that if he isn't #1, its just not good enough.

Two guys, who totally tossed their amazing potential in the garbage can. But in different ways.

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I think WHYSB is a little overrated—some of the songs peter out and don’t really go anywhere musically. Also, it may just be me, but the production sounds flat and tinny at times. However, the lyrics are very good—definitely Mark’s best—and are the album’s strongest feature. I’ve appreciated a lot of them over the years.

It’s definitely better than anything in the California era mainly because it sounds authentic. 

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1 hour ago, Olidamus said:

I really think Mark found Plus 44 to be a failure. When you are use to success on a grand scale and suddenly you are playing clubs; I think it broke him. Why didn't we get anymore Plus 44? Why can't Mark write songs to save his life?

Mark and Tom are total opposites, Tom can't be broken no matter what, Mark is so fragile, that if he isn't #1, its just not good enough.

Two guys, who totally tossed their amazing potential in the garbage can. But in different ways.

+44 just wasn't heavily marketed at all. I only found out about it because I saw WYHSB video pop up on the TV.  Such an amazing album and a shame Mark views it as an 'electronic' side project when it's his most sincere writing that he's ever accomplished.

Definitely broke him, I find it hard to believe that was all he had left in the tank for writing.

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46 minutes ago, MSandt said:

I bet the vast majority of you pretend WYHSB appreciators have listened to the album maybe once in the past five years or so.

i’ve been listening to it for like ten years nonstop haha. at least once a month 

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1 hour ago, MSandt said:

I bet the vast majority of you pretend WYHSB appreciators have listened to the album maybe once in the past five years or so.

One more than California tbh.


And again, this isn't really a argument or a thread dedicated to the album being amazing by any means - though some may feel that way about it. It is more of a discussion on how much better it is than California, in so many ways. I agree with the previous posts though that, I think Mark really does see it as a failure because of the downgrade of venues and attendance and numbers. Mark seems to really, really care about his outside verification - which would be a big hint as to why we see him constantly trying to be fresh in "his" scene and dying his hair stupid fucking colors in his 40s. 

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3 hours ago, Kvothe said:

Agree.

I'd argue that the first two Angels and Airwaves albums, +44, Boxcar Racer, and every pre-California release are better than California. The only era of Blink worse than California is the Mark-driven Neighborhoods songs that Tom had no hand in. 

Not sure about that. I think the Mark songs on that are pretty damn good. Kaleidoscope is up there with the best of the best when it comes to blink songs IMO. Fighting the Gravity I can understand why people hate it but I love it when blink do the weird experimental stuff, so for me it's a top song. Heart's All Gone is great too, especially lyrically. MH is a bit boring though haha, can give you that. Lyrically it's very good outside of the helicopter line I think though.

As for this thread as a whole, +44's album being compared to California is a huge insult to +44. It's probably the most underrated album I've ever heard. There isn't one bad song on it. It's such a joke that an album like that wasn't very successful from a commercial stand point. It's like a music equivalent of Blade Runner or something. That album is everything blink should've become mixed in with Alkaline Trio elements since Skiba is now part of the band. Even it's pop punk songs are fucking amazing, like Baby Come On & Cliff Diving. Just goes to show that lyrics about their youth can work when it's done right.

Agree with Oliver too. Mark barely talks about +44 the way Tom talks about BCR. Both of their albums are about equal when it comes to the commercial side. I think had +44 remained as a band rather than blink getting back together, +44 would've been pretty successful anyway. There's just no way that band would've gone downhill the way AVA did. It just had shit promotion compared to AVA's first album. Mark does seem to think album sales represent how good an album is.

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25 minutes ago, Nosferatu said:

Mark barely talks about +44 the way Tom talks about BCR. Both of their albums are about equal when it comes to the commercial side. I think had +44 remained as a band rather than blink getting back together, +44 would've been pretty successful anyway. There's just no way that band would've gone downhill the way AVA did. It just had shit promotion compared to AVA's first album. Mark does seem to think album sales represent how good an album is.

Its a shame it got overshadowed because it really is a great record. If he thinks an album's greatness is ranked by sales, that is really saying something.

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