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Box Car Racer or (+44)??


Tombomb

Box Car Racer or (+44)??  

49 members have voted

  1. 1. Box Car Racer or (+44)??

    • Box Car Racer Self Titled
      29
    • (+44) When Your Heart Stops Beating
      20


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I genuinely can't decide, I've always viewed these albums as sister albums, one being all Tom (with Travis) and the other being all Mark (with Travis).  It's like on their own they're great, but if these two albums made love, then the self titled blink album would end up being the offspring lol.

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BCR is the best blink side project, Tom at his creative peak and informed untitled massively. Travis’s drumming is amazing. Features from Tim Armstrong and Mr Hoppus, unreal.

Tough, because +44 has some of the best Mark lyrics going

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21 hours ago, Champ182 said:

Oh yeah definitely. BCR > +44 >>>>> AVA

AvA is a grower, I never liked them at first but they have a lot of solid material you can pick and choose from. A lot of crap, but a handful of gems.  I probably listen to that and Neighborhoods the most these days randomly.

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13 hours ago, M!ke said:

I genuinely can't decide, I've always viewed these albums as sister albums, one being all Tom (with Travis) and the other being all Mark (with Travis).  It's like on their own they're great, but if these two albums made love, then the self titled blink album would end up being the offspring lol.

Haha they could've been Blink's version of "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below"

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BCR has aged poorly in a lot of ways (cringe lyrics), though its guitar work easily trumps +44. but altogether, +44 has comparably strong melodies, inventive drum work, smart songwriting, and bends genres. it's a more creative work, and shows more promise than BCR, soooo ... +44

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On 8/20/2020 at 11:07 AM, Kay said:

Oh for sure, easily. 

It's consistency with AVA, i do love the Dream Walker album and always wondered if blink had done a rock opera what it wouldn've been... this is the closest we'll get and the story is a punk Inception or whatever and confusing but the songs are good. But Heaven is still my favorite AVA song.

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18 hours ago, M!ke said:

I genuinely can't decide, I've always viewed these albums as sister albums, one being all Tom (with Travis) and the other being all Mark (with Travis).  It's like on their own they're great, but if these two albums made love, then the self titled blink album would end up being the offspring lol.

Sick untitled burn.

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On 8/20/2020 at 9:27 AM, vic vinegar said:

I say BCR over +44 but +44 over AVA.

actually, reverse this for me. Hard to admit, but I think AVA wins over +44. If +44 released more material, it might be different though...unless you consider latter Blink as like +44 ...then it's tough!

3 hours ago, boxelder said:

BCR has aged poorly in a lot of ways (cringe lyrics), though its guitar work easily trumps +44. but altogether, +44 has comparably strong melodies, inventive drum work, smart songwriting, and bends genres. it's a more creative work, and shows more promise than BCR, soooo ... +44

I actually half agree with this. I mean, I'm no expert, but I'd guess that BCR has better guitar considering it's Tom...but I kinda feel like BCR was actually the more inventive/creative...maybe it's just because I'm listening to these albums now, after several years of "emo" style, which I feel is more +44.

28 minutes ago, thongrider said:

Sick untitled burn.

Oh yea. I took it as a compliment, but I was thinking that like Neighborhoods may just have been the offspring of BCR and +44...OR Untitled is the parent of both +44 and AVA. What do y'all think of that?! lol

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2 hours ago, Tombomb said:

imac tually half agree with this. I mean, I'm no expert, but I'd guess that BCR has better guitar considering it's Tom...but I kinda feel like BCR was actually the more inventive/creative...maybe it's just because I'm listening to these albums now, after several years of "emo" style, which I feel is more +44.

BCR to me just doesn’t feel as sonically varied as +44, which is fine, but varied means more to me as  a listener. you’ve got classic descendents-style punk (cliff diving), electronic experiments (155), downbeat tunes (little death), happy tunes (chapter 13), a boy/girl duet (make you smile). it’s got some of the strongest songs mark ever put on paper, like no it isn’t or baby come on.

BCR is mainly tom bitching about politics, in a naive and ham-fisted fashion. some of the guitar stuff is cool, and it’s very clearly a classic, but some of his lyrics are kinda stupid.

the only thing weighing +44 down is that in being lyrically candid and vulnerable, it takes a distinctly venomous tone. listening to an album like that for some time can be emotionally exhausting, though this problem would surely have been fixed in future +44 efforts. 

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6 hours ago, thongrider said:

Sick untitled burn.

How is that a burn?  I'm saying Untitled is the best of both Tom and Mark's worlds coming together as one, while the BCR and +44 albums feel like what you'd get if you were able to pull away all the Mark or Tom influence from Untitled respectively.  All 3 albums are fantastic, though I think Untitled is the best of the 3, but it is easy to see how they all came out in roughly the same era.

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6 hours ago, boxelder said:

BCR to me just doesn’t feel as sonically varied as +44, which is fine, but varied means more to me as  a listener. you’ve got classic descendents-style punk (cliff diving), electronic experiments (155), downbeat tunes (little death), happy tunes (chapter 13), a boy/girl duet (make you smile). it’s got some of the strongest songs mark ever put on paper, like no it isn’t or baby come on.

BCR is mainly tom bitching about politics, in a naive and ham-fisted fashion. some of the guitar stuff is cool, and it’s very clearly a classic, but some of his lyrics are kinda stupid.

the only thing weighing +44 down is that in being lyrically candid and vulnerable, it takes a distinctly venomous tone. listening to an album like that for some time can be emotionally exhausting, though this problem would surely have been fixed in future +44 efforts. 

Fair enough. Again, I'm no expert and I haven't heard either album enough, especially not BCR, but I was just thinking of the few different ones on BCR. Like There Is or even Elevator vs My First Punk Song. Felt pretty different to me, oh and Cat Like Thief that had almost a rap quality (right? Wasn't that that song?)...but I thi k I can understand your point too. Haha a "venomous tone" eh? Maybe that's why I like it! 😈 j/p

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3 hours ago, M!ke said:

How is that a burn?  I'm saying Untitled is the best of both Tom and Mark's worlds coming together as one, while the BCR and +44 albums feel like what you'd get if you were able to pull away all the Mark or Tom influence from Untitled respectively.  All 3 albums are fantastic, though I think Untitled is the best of the 3, but it is easy to see how they all came out in roughly the same era.

The joke was that Untitled sounds like The Offspring. 

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17 hours ago, Tombomb said:

actually, reverse this for me. Hard to admit, but I think AVA wins over +44. If +44 released more material, it might be different though...unless you consider latter Blink as like +44 ...then it's tough!

I'll always wonder what that second +44 record would've sounded like. I even remember Mark posting the official contract saying they were signed to record it... and then Travis got in a plane crash and Tom wanted blink on modlife so we got Neighborhoods instead. Which is fine too.

I know i don't like Mark much these days with the way he's handled the past 5 years of blink, but i do sincerely love +44 and think it's maybe the highlight of Mark's career if you don't include the original blink run from 92-05.

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@boxelder ok, I gave a proper listen to BCR today and I get what you're saying about it being samey. I mean, I struggle with remembering which song is which, because there are a lot of moments that repeat throughout the album. But I still kinda think lyrically it's more varied. I mean, unless I'm missing something, I don't think they are all about politics. I mean, My First Punk Song is about syphilis. lol And There Is is a love-ish song...

@vic vinegar Yeah, I'm ok with Neighborhoods, I guess...it's just so terrible that they like forced that one though and forced themselves to be together, when clearly it was too much. :(

I get it about Mark. Actually, I think about Mark a lot and the toll the whole breakup/s took on him. While people criticize how Tom handled things, and I agree it wasn't the best way, but it was just a hard circumstance, I also kinda feel Mark handled things a bit immaturely too. I'm not talking about +44. That's fine. That's artistic expression and what it's there for, but like...I dunno!! lol Actually, I was meaning to say that post Neighborhoods hasn't been THAT bad, and in fact, there are some really great Blink moments still, IMO...but I think that maybe they should have just used +44 to continue their form of musical expression and drop Blink. Yea?? I don't know! :P As I forgave Tom, I forgive Mark. It really was just a very hard circumstance, or series of circumstances.  

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