blink-182 - Nine
Nine is blink-182’s most recently released album, debuting on September 20, 2019. It is the second album the band has released following the departure of founding member guitarist/vocalist Tom Delonge and likewise the second album featuring his replacement Matt Skiba. From the outset, the band’s members stated they were interested in releasing a heavier and darker record than their first release with Skiba, California - an album that seemed focused primarily on recapturing the band’s previous victories by echoing Enema of the State and, less directly, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. Like California, Nine features the use of outside songwriters as well as prominent writing and production from John Feldmann.
Nine opens with “The First Time”, and immediately the listener is treated to a callback to an older blink-182 song, “Feeling This” with the former track’s flanged drumbeat echoing the intro to the latter. “The First Time” serves as a solid introduction to the album in terms of its overall composition; the song is heavier than many of the tracks on California while also featuring more hip hop and electronic elements than most previous blink releases and vocally features the band’s signature harmonies and vocal trade-offs between both lead vocalists, though its similarities to previous releases seem to hold this song back a bit.
Nine is guitarist/vocalist Matt Skiba’s second album with blink-182.
The second track on the album is “Happy Days”. This song is one of a few on the record that sounds more along the lines of typical blink-182 releases, something it shares a bit with the opening track “The First Time” and more so with later song “Pin The Grenade”. It seems as though these songs were written according to some sort of script or playbook rather than naturally, so even though they sound like what blink-182 should sound like, these songs still seem forced, despite relatively solid lyrical and melodic qualities.
Although there are some songs on the album that are held back by their resemblance to blink-182’s normal style, there are also quite a few that shine because of their familiarity because of their ability to uniquely rise above the typical blink-182 formula. “Heaven” sounds like it was ripped from +44’s self-titled release with heavy guitars and light electronics while also prevailing as one of the darkest songs lyrically that the band has ever released. Both Matt Skiba and Mark Hoppus shine vocally on the track and make perfect use of their vocal talents to convey the tone of the song. “On Some Emo Shit” is a masterclass on what I would personally think blink-182 would sound like with its current lineup; the track sounds like the summation of all of the band’s growth, featuring elements one would expect to hear on blink’s self-titled album, +44’s self-titled album, Neighborhoods and even California. “On Some Emo Shit” is also the only song on the album with writing credits featuring only the three core members of the band, Hoppus, Barker and Skiba, so this song could be a glimpse into what the band would sound like without the outside writers so heavily featured on most of Nine. “Generational Divide” also sounds like the type of song that blink-182 has been releasing when trying to make something that sounds intentionally fast and heavy; although it is definitely one of the stronger tracks on the album, it is held back a bit by the vocal production, including how loud Matt Skiba’s vocals are mixed. Overall, “Generational Divide” serves as a solid distraction from the weaker middle of the album.
Despite much of Nine feeling very predictable, blink-182 definitely did experiment quite a bit on this album as well - to mixed results. “Blame It On My Youth”, the album’s lead single, is one of the most pop infused songs that the band has ever released; it sounds more like songs from All Time Low’s 2015 album Future Hearts (another album co-written and produced by John Feldmann) than a blink-182 song and its similarity to this style helps cause the song to fall short. The lyrics and production on “Blame It On My Youth” sound very juvenile overall, though, so it is not just the strange paradigm shift that causes the track to fall short. “Run Away”, “Black Rain”, “Ransom”, “Hungover You”, and “Remember To Forget Me” are all songs where the band tried new things but came up short. “Black Rain” features verses that sound reminiscent of Matt Skiba’s old side project Heavens, though the song as a whole feels as though it does not fit with the rest of the album. “Run Away” and “Hungover You” are both decent enough songs but fail to tweak the normal blink-182 formula in an interesting way; they really do sound like filler songs that do a decent enough job of fitting the tone of the album, though that is about all they have going for them. “Ransom” is actually one of the most interesting songs on the album as the song barely sounds recognizable as a blink-182 song and instrumentally it has a very well polished and snappy design; that said, it suffers from ridiculous overproduction on the vocals, especially once the song picks up its pace halfway through. “Remember To Forget Me” is probably the weakest album closer that blink-182 has ever written. This song is purely a pop song, featuring overproduction in terms of both instrumentation and vocals and the lyrics are very watered down - even for a blink-182 release. Sadly, an otherwise poor song has one of the coolest moments on the entire album with its melodic callback to “No Heart To Speak Of”.
Nine is blink-182’s ninth studio album - depending on who you ask - hence the name.
Although several songs from Nine ended up as failed experiments, “Darkside”, “I Really Wish I Hated You”, and “No Heart To Speak Of” stand out as songs that the band can continue to build a new sound around. “Darkside” features tasteful use of electronic production in its verses and while Matt Skiba’s vocals sound a bit overproduced on the surface, it fits the overall production of the song very well. The heavier guitars in both the chorus and bridge sound like previous blink-182 and +44songs, and the combination of the old with the new works very well here, as the song is high tempo and well balanced. “I Really Wish I Hated You” has one of the best overall instrumentals on the entire album, utilizing the hip hop elements featured throughout the album phenomenally and, despite being quite a downer in tone, the song is infectiously catchy. The harmonies on “I Really Wish I Hated You” are also outstanding, as much of the song features Hoppus and Skiba singing together and it is some of the best usage of their voices on the entire album. The only thing the song struggles with is its lyrical content; in a lot of ways it is quite immature and feels like one of blink’s weakest recent songs in that category. “No Heart To Speak Of” features Matt Skiba’s vocals more prominently than most other songs from Nine have and it plays as one of the most aggressively sad songs on the album. “No Heart To Speak Of” matches “Heaven” in terms of its heaviness and the song allows Skiba to put his vocal range on display and he rises to the task very well; as some YouTube comments said when I first heard this song, it really is “Matt Skiba unleashed”. Unleashing Matt Skiba seems to be a great choice, both on this album and as blink continues to grow with him as a core member, as he has had some of the best moments on both California and Nine.
Nine is a bit of a mess of an album: the highs are very good but the lows are some of the most middling songs in blink-182’s entire catalog. It is easy to tell that the band is struggling with how to reinvent their classic sound to stay fresh and relevant in the current music landscape, something younger bands like All Time Low and Five Seconds of Summer already did with blink’s sound years ago, and to great success. However, directly emulating this sound as blink-182 does a few times on Nine is not going to be good for the band down the line; this album in particular suffers from overproduction, both on vocals and throughout many of the instrumental tracks. That said, Nine definitely sounds different than any blink-182 album before it and sometimes it actually plays out as a good thing. As the band continues to grow with Matt Skiba, there is still enough of that same old blink-182 spirit left in their music to continue to be excited for the band’s future releases - assuming they’re able to find their voices together.