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Neighborhoods is a great collection of songs, but a pretty bad album


M!ke

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I very much enjoy Neighborhoods, it is not blink's best album, but it is a solid album all the same.  But I have my share of criticism against it, and I bet you probably do too.  What I think my biggest gripe with the album ultimately is though is that it's not a good album, and I think we all likely understand why that is as well.  Let me explain that by it being a bad album, I mean that it is not a well structured collection of songs.  There is not a great flow from one song to the next, and the Deluxe version of the album, which is supposed to be the definitive version of the album ends on a very odd track to end on.  Like it's a song that reminds you of classic Enema/TOYPAJ blink, and it gets you all energized for those kinds of songs again, but then the album is over.  Conversely, look at the Untitled album, every song flows beautifully into the next, and the final song, be it the standard release, or the UK version that ends with Not Now, is a logical song to close out the album on (I'd argue that I'm Lost Without You is the better closer, but Not Now does work as kind of an epilogue closer as well).  The lack of a flowing structure in Neighborhoods and its feeling of disjointedness comes down to two pretty evident things: Tom couldn't commit to recording very often, and they wouldn't meet up together to make the new songs, frankly it's amazing the songs turned out as well as they did when you recognize this.  Beyond that, the three of them produced the album themselves, something that certainly is not their forte, say what you will about California, but at least that album feels like an album with a flow from start to finish, Neighborhoods ultimately just feels like a collection of blink songs and nothing more.

On top of that, for all the great songs it has, I've found that most fans have at least one or two songs on the album, if not more that they simply don't like.  And what makes addressing this so tough is that these songs that go unliked vary widely from fan to fan.  Some don't like Fighting the Gravity, some don't like Love is Dangerous, some don't like This is Home, some don't like MH 4.18.2011, some don't like Snake Charmer, some don't like Wishing Well, etc. etc.  But rarely are the songs that are disliked consistent from fan to fan.  For example, I love Fighting the Gravity, enjoy Love is Dangerous, can't stand This is Home, find MH 4.18.2011 to be forgettable, and I can take or leave Wishing Well (though I've grown to appreciate it's lyrics more over the years so I've warmed more up to it).  Yet I know to many fans here the songs I don't like are great, and the songs I do like are terrible. 

So in an attempt to make the album more enjoyable in Spotify is put it in a playlist, and I've tried to do is replace the 2 songs I dislike the most (This is Home and MH 4.18.2011), by removing them and putting Disaster and Dogs Eating Dogs in their places respectively.  I feel like the Dogs Eating Dogs EP is a decent place to pull songs from to replace the tunes that don't work for you, but some songs will probably fit in better than others.  Beyond that, I think that regardless of your opinion on Love is Dangerous, it makes for a better closing song for the album (as it was on the standard release) than Even if She Falls does.  And as such, I've reshuffled Even If She Falls and Fighting the Gravity into the album before Love is Dangerous.  I've also tried adding Boxing Day at the very end after Love is Dangerous almost like it's a bonus acoustic track, and this actually works really well as a closer too.  All the same, while I enjoy this listening experience more than what they gave us, the lack of a proper flow really can't be made up for this way.  And while I find this continues to be a very enjoyable collection of blink songs, it will never be a great album, which sadly I think is a shame.  There was a lot of potential in Neighborhoods, and parts of that shines through here and there, just wish it were there everywhere.

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2 minutes ago, Harvey Klinger's Heartache said:

There are 40 other threads just like this, m!ke, pick on and have the discussion in there. 

Seriously guys?  Its no wonder these boards aren't nearly what they used to be.  God forbid there is an extra topic on these boards trying to encourage more discussion about blink.

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1 minute ago, M!ke said:

Seriously guys?  Its no wonder these boards aren't nearly what they used to be.  God forbid there is an extra topic on these boards trying to encourage more discussion about blink.

When you're done crying delete this pointless thread.

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That could also be why it aged so well, cohesive albums don't matter so much anymore in the streaming era, great collection of songs do.


Personally, I love Fighting the Gravity, Natives, Kaleidescope, LID, Even if She Falls, and Wishing Well.  This Is Home and After Midnight are the only blunders to me.  It feels nostalgic but also new somehow, the rest of blink feels like pure nostalgia to me so I'm always going back to Neighborhoods/DED and Dude Ranch.

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Just now, Harvey Klinger's Heartache said:

When you're done crying delete this pointless thread.

wow, great board we're running here.  I miss when this place was active and full of interesting discussion.  Such a shame what's happened here.

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3 minutes ago, RebelGirlsUnite said:

That could also be why it aged so well, cohesive albums don't matter so much anymore in the streaming era, great collection of songs do.


Personally, I love Fighting the Gravity, Natives, Kaleidescope, LID, Even if She Falls, and Wishing Well.  This Is Home and After Midnight are the only blunders to me.  It feels nostalgic but also new somehow, the rest of blink feels like pure nostalgia to me so I'm always going back to Neighborhoods/DED and Dude Ranch.

Oh definitely, the songs that hold up, hold up really well.  And not being plopped in the middle of a flowing album can definitely be in favor of such a song.  Even if She Falls, Ghost on the Dancefloor, and Kaleidoscope remain some of my favorite blink songs, and as such I'll always be grateful that Neighborhoods was made.  But still if it were an album that felt more like Untitled, I can't help but wonder how much better it could have been.

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3 minutes ago, RebelGirlsUnite said:

It squeezes in my top 5 of the album. The instrumental is fucking great.

I always thought it got more hate than it deserved.  Its not amazing, but it's still solid and I do think it makes for a decent closer.  I also like how it kinda does the thing that they did in Violence where they both sing, but one is slightly trailing the other.  Think that makes for a pretty great effect.

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What people don't realize is that Neighborhoods (while disjointed) and Dude Ranch is actual blink and Enema-Self Titled is Jerry Finn.

This is them at their most raw and their 'prime days', musically speaking, are largely because of Jerry Finn's direction and how explosive he can make the songs.  

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45 minutes ago, M!ke said:

wow, great board we're running here.  I miss when this place was active and full of interesting discussion.  Such a shame what's happened here.

That tends to happen when you have the same conversations over and over and over and over and over and over.

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4 minutes ago, RebelGirlsUnite said:

What people don't realize is that Neighborhoods (while disjointed) and Dude Ranch is actual blink and Enema-Self Titled is Jerry Finn.

This is them at their most raw and their 'prime days', musically speaking, are largely because of Jerry Finn's direction and how explosive he can make the songs.  

Perhaps, but as a self produced release, Dogs Eating Dogs feels so much more complete and whole compared to Neighborhoods, and that likely has a lot to do with the fact that they actually recorded that entire thing together.  In fact for that reason alone, I'd argue that Neighborhoods is not actual blink, it's Frankenblink at best.

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2 hours ago, RebelGirlsUnite said:

What people don't realize is that Neighborhoods (while disjointed) and Dude Ranch is actual blink and Enema-Self Titled is Jerry Finn.

I think there's some truth to this. Interesting to think about honestly. I think Neighborhoods was great and it was just blink-182, without significant  outside influence. I miss that. Obviously I expected blink to sound different with Matt Skiba, and I'm totally okay with that, and totally for it. But the problem was it feels like we got a John Feldmann album instead of a true Mark, Matt, and Travis blink-182 album.

I think it was fine but I prefer what came before. I love Dogs Eating Dogs and the direction they went with it made me so excited for whatever was going to come next that we never got.

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9 hours ago, M!ke said:

Perhaps, but as a self produced release, Dogs Eating Dogs feels so much more complete and whole compared to Neighborhoods, and that likely has a lot to do with the fact that they actually recorded that entire thing together.  In fact for that reason alone, I'd argue that Neighborhoods is not actual blink, it's Frankenblink at best.

The reason it sounds complete is because Tom wrote the whole of DED. Mark just added bits and pieces to songs, not whole songs themselves.

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