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First Listen: Blink-182 - Up All Night

Blink-182's comeback offering gets an initial verdict in our first listen review.

Posted 15th July 2011, 9:30am in Blogs by Stephen Ackroyd
Stephen Ackroyd

Stephen Ackroyd

Editor

First Listen: Blink-182 - Up All Night You wait for bleedin' years for a new Blink-182 track and then… well, for a while you just wait some more. While Tom DeLonge banged that really-quite-worthy slightly spacey Angels & Airwaves drum, and +44 almost disappeared as quickly as they arrived, it was pretty clear nothing was happening - apart from the odd bout of press based mud slinging. Even since the trio found themselves back together and on the road, it's been a while. Finally, though, we have something new.

And with that comes it's own metaphorical 'kettle of fish' - whatever came next had to be good. If it wasn't, they were washed up. Finished. Too old. No longer relevant. Bluntly, on a scale of one to ten, Blink-182 are looking to go all the way up to eleven.

'Up All Night' seems, if anything, a step back to happier times. Echoing back in parts to the last point where Blink-182 were a steady ship, with it's Tom and Mark vocal, there's a touch of 'Feeling This' to the verses. But then there's that riff. Starting and ending on something verging on the brutal, they're certainly waking up the neighbours. Though certain corners of the internet seem intent to bring up AVA, Box Car Racer and any other number of Blink related side projects, there's still a certain something to this that those others lacked. On the other hand, it's definitely no departure from that tried and tested sound - though anyone coming to this band for pushing the bleeding edge of musical boundaries may need some kind of professional help

Whether that's enough to make the magic bullet is open to debate. Those still inclined towards Blink-182's particular charms may well be delighted. It's unlikely to have those corners of the internet that have since drifted away flocking back to their pop punk roots (even though many of those bands draw direct influence from Blink), but with that other great powerhouse of pop punk Green Day more concerned with musicals, politics and concept albums, Fall Out Boy gone AWOL and the best of the rest so remarkably similar they risk making one, singular Megazord of a band, that once contested throne could be there for the taking.

You can check out 'Up All Night' yourself below:
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