Blink-182 – One More Time…

PRESSING QUALITY: Aesthetically, it's a cool looking variant. I have to it I slept on preordering one and I only bought this one because it was the only variant left when I went to put in my preorder. But honestly this variant looks way better than any of the other ones they had to offer so I'm glad I was forced to buy this one. The yellow just works with the pink cover. As far as the pressing quality is concerned, it's got a fair amount of surface noise but it's basically devoid of pops and ticks, which is good because they are way harder to ignore when listening.

MASTERING & MIXING: Like most of Blink's vinyl releases, the mixing on this release is trash. The mids and highs get completely lost in the back on most of the songs. There isn't a very wide soundstage either. Why do Blink’s vinyl releases always sound so bad? I'm not even sure hey I preordered this. I knew it was going to sound like trash.

ALBUM REVIEW: I've been a Blink fan since I was 14. I'm 38 now. I really wanted to like this album. And I really tried to like it. But the truth is, it's just not good. I really thought Tom reing the band would bring back the creative spark because let's face it, Tom is the creative in the band. California and Nine were mediocre at best. But unfortunately, this album misses the mark too. There is almost no creativity in any of the songs. It's mostly just heavy fuzz and distortion laden power chords and loud anthemic choruses. Not to mention it is loud and 100mph from start to finish. There are very few moments on this album for you to gather your thoughts or for your ears to rest. It's a very exhausting album to listen to. Jerry Finn is rolling over in his grave listening to this. What happened to the mature songwriting of Untitled and Neighborhoods? Even the Dogs Eating Dogs EP was better than this. This album almost sounds forced. It sounds like they wrote it in ten minutes and recorded it in a day. There's nothing really memorable on this album. I gave it a few spins in an attempt to force myself to try and get into it but I just couldn't. It's a boring, forgettable album and anybody that thinks otherwise is lying to themselves. Real Blink fans know they're better than this half-assed effort.

BOTTOM LINE: Overall, between the less than stellar pressing quality, mixing, and the album falling well short of expectations, I wholeheartedly regret preordering this album. I’m not even upset that they didn’t include a card because I have no desire to put this on my hard drive. $35 down the drain. I should've listened to it on Tidal first