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California (1 year later)


Scott.

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7 hours ago, Nosferatu said:

Gotta say I prefer Weatherman. Literally hate Wildfire. I'd rather listen to the terrible AVA songs than Wildfire haha. When I first heard Weatherman, I used to find it dull & boring but as I started appreciating +44 more, I eventually just fell in love with the song. That album had a similar impact as the smiley face album. First few listens, I'd just never know what to think of it. Fast forward 2 years after hearing it, I just finally figured it out. Great album. I'd argue that it's better than BCR. Would also argue that it's on the same level as the smiley face album.

Nope nope.  I sat out and stared at a distant hilly landscape all summer long, and thought about this question.  Self Titled is still better than WYHSB, by a very very small margin.  Both are terrific albums, but when you have elite collaborations like Stockholm Syndrome, Feeling This, Violence, you have to give it the edge.  But both get trumped ever so slightly by Dude Ranch as well. 

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Mediocre album with little depth and staying power. 

Production is generic and sounds like most crappy mainstream pop-punk teeny bopper albums.

Lacks decent guitar riffs.

Many of the songs have meaningless and/or simple lyrics, especially Deluxe.

You could make a pretty good album with the best songs off both California and Deluxe. But as it stands, 70% of the albums are forgettable and generic.

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7 hours ago, Janinator said:

Nope nope.  I sat out and stared at a distant hilly landscape all summer long, and thought about this question.  Self Titled is still better than WYHSB, by a very very small margin.  Both are terrific albums, but when you have elite collaborations like Stockholm Syndrome, Feeling This, Violence, you have to give it the edge.  But both get trumped ever so slightly by Dude Ranch as well. 

It's songs like Feeling This, Violence, Stockholm Syndrome, Obvious, Not Now, Here's Your Letter why I'd give the smiley face album higher ratings. Both albums are strong. I guess with WYHSB the only thing it's missing is them defining killer songs. I'd give nearly every song from the +44 album a 5/5 but none of the songs are defining the way Feeling This, Violence etc are. What WYHSB has is a consistent album of just great alt rock songs. Every song is superb to me, but I guess not defining. Whereas the smiley face album has both of them things. Consistent effort of great songs as well as defining songs.

As much as I love Dude Ranch, the smiley face album is just my favourite album of all time. There's no album in the world that matches that really IMO. Even by the legendary bands like the Who, Clash, Queen etc. I guess that's the blink fanboy in me saying that because I know that blink haven't reached that status of being one of those legendary rock bands that everyone seems to love. Blink definitely should be considered as great as these kind of bands IMO. If Green Day are, then blink-182 definitely should be. But like I say, I guess it's the blink fanboy in me that says it haha.

I consider WHYSB close, if not the same level. I feel the same with BCR and Green Day's American Idiot album. Same with AFI's Sleeping With Sorrows. Great albums that I love that come close to that level. As for Dude Ranch, that's just a pop punk masterpiece. Same with Enema. Both are great albums. Definitely consider both of those albums on a similar level too. Both them albums put California to shame.

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On 9/21/2017 at 5:16 AM, boxelder said:

yup. play these side by side

 

I hate them both, probably equally. I love WYHSB but there's some definite stinkers on that record. Weatherman, Little Death and Cliff Diving are songs I'd happily never hear again.

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2 hours ago, Kay said:

I hate them both, probably equally. I love WYHSB but there's some definite stinkers on that record. Weatherman, Little Death and Cliff Diving are songs I'd happily never hear again.

Little Death might just be my favourite +44 song haha. Cliff Diving has lyrics to do with his youth. Strange how he could pull the teenage lyrics off for that song but with California, it wasn't done well IMO.

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7 hours ago, Kay said:

I hate them both, probably equally. I love WYHSB but there's some definite stinkers on that record. Weatherman, Little Death and Cliff Diving are songs I'd happily never hear again.

I hate Weatherman as well never grew on me but Little Death & Cliff Diving are in my Top 3 off the album haha

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Why on earth did I call it "Sleeping with Sorrows"? Man, insomnia fucks up my knowledge at times haha. Yeah, Death of Seasons is my personal favourite from that record and I usually can't stand screaming kind of songs. The first song is a great intro track as well. I just love it when pop punk bands or punk rock bands go experimental. "Chuck" by Sum 41 is one of my favourites too that IMO is the same level as these albums.

I know bands like Pink Floyd, U2, The Cure etc do all that experimental stuff but I can get easily bored listening to albums by them. I need to be hearing some loud guitars with drive in there man. That's why I like the experimental pop punk/punk rock bands. That said, apart from Pink Floyd, bands like that often have about 10 songs I love listening to. Lullaby, Friday I'm in Love, A Letter to Elise, Just Like Heaven, Boys Don't Cry. Basically the singles, I'm not a hardcore fan. Just a casual fan that has been influenced by these kind of singles & punk rock music.

As for California, it has songs I enjoy. About 12-13 out of 29, which is poor for a band like blink, because they're usually pretty consistent with every album. Neighborhoods was inconsistent but the fact they could write some great tunes whilst being so dysfunctional is a testament to how good Mark, Tom & Travis are. A committed Tom and a producer that let's them write whatever and looks for ways to improve the songs they've written, rather than make them start from scratch and write the poppiest shit they can think of.

From this...

"And this is not the time or place for us to speak like this,
if I had the thought I'd never dream of it,
so dry your hollow eyes and let's go down to the water,
in a different time or place the words could make more sense,
in a perfect world the future wouldn't make a dent,
so dry your hollow eyes and let's go down to the water,
even though it's the last time."

to this...

"Blackjack and architect,
let's drink ourselves to death,
the crimes of everyone passed down from father to son,
hopeless and destitute,
destroyed my gratitude,
your strongest lines of defence are all just self inflicted wounds."

Compared to this trash...

"Living for the paycheck,
dying for the weekend,
take another Xanax,
cheating on your girlfriend."

Mark is capable of so much more. Same for Skiba. I still believe blink can reach the level they were once at even with no Tom. Hopefully that happens.

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I never was a big +44 fan. I don't hate it, it's just a bit boring. BCR was blink level. 

+44 is still better than 90% of AVA though I'd say. AVA has individual songs that are much better than anything on that +44 album, but when you take everything into account +44 was better.

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+44 vs BCR is one of the hardest debates.  Both on the same tier of awesome, but WYHSB felt a little more organic/authentic to me, while BCR felt a little like Tom attempting to be edgier/heavier throughout...+44 all felt like songs deep written through Mark aside from maybe the title track for hits.

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