Blink-182 – One More Time… Review

Weigh up your options. Do you see the band which made a name for itself with songs which could still fit on the Scooby-Doo live-action soundtrack or the band which gave us Firestarter? The choice is yours, Leedsfest attendees. For some, it will be the chance to dive around to The Prodigy while others will seek calmer waters with Blink-182. Some will be nonplussed by both and likely sit in their cramped tent, reading the rest of Rosemary’s Baby and whittling down the hours to a warm shower and the sweet embrace of a The Sopranos rewatch. But you woke up this morning and decided a bit of research may not go amiss. One More Time… is a Blink-182 album, and it will give you a fighting chance in the pits if you can remember a few of the words. 

We have learned so far the band has a hyphen before the numbers and holds the same sway of punk as Green Day, Fall Out Boy and the collective which made for grand Tumblr fodder. About as edgy as Wheatus on a bad day. One More Time… is their latest effort, a 2023 smash-up of what they have learned both from being a band and from their strains over the last few years. At least they have the resources to make an honest and open piece of work. Few can say they have, and fewer can fail to put brushes with death and the camaraderie of a long-running band to credible song. Loud instrumental work and vowel-pushing whine, that is Anthem Part 3 for you. At the start of the band this vocal tone was fresh, fun and carrying the torch for the rest of post-punk. Now it feels whiny and insincere, played out for the sake of it.  

There is a weightless sound to the comeback. A drummer out of step and competing for a place in the spotlight against the slightly electronically altered vocals. It adds nothing, the impressive yet infantile pace of the drumming is made to applaud as an individual piece rather than work in sync with the rest of the band. Selfish, to some degree, but at least it distracts from plain lyrics of being heartbroken and searching for something to make up for the loss. Fell in Love is the perfect example of the problem with Blink-182. Their lyrical testament is simple but well-intended. The vocal decisions are questionable, and the instrumentals are soft, if a little vacant. One More Time highlights how little has changed in the sound of Blink-182, and this is as reductive as it gets. Nearing their 50s and still singing of teenage romances. Reflections on the past? It doesn’t sound like it.  

It is less taxing to be on the phone with British Gas for hours on a hot day like today than it is to listen to One More Time… An album which banks on the nostalgia for the band. Blink-182 reaches its breaking point with a rough cut of teenage antics. But by failing to grow and expose themselves to the realities which stomped them down on their initial run, Blink-182 shows they have not matured. There is an uncomfortable sense to the likes of Dance With Me which feels inaccessible because the band has refused to clock into the real world. They still think skatepunk is the next big thing. Reel Big Fish is mocked for sticking with ska, why not save some of these reactionary, upturned nose tones for a band peddling nostalgia on an expensive circuit with little, if anything, learned from album to album? An album stuck in the past, made for those who wish they were around for it.