Album Review: Nine by blink-182

I loved this album!

My personal favorite track is "Pin the Grenade", but "Heaven" and Darkside" are strong contenders. Many of the songs have stuck with me and come back to me and felt relevant to me.

I loved it right away. The review took a little bit longer than might have been necessary.

With most of these album reviews, I have reviewed the band already, and often seen them live. That makes the album review a simple addition.

I have listened to a lot of blink-182 over the years. I am pretty familiar with the catalog. I have never written a review or seen them live. For the first several years I specifically did not want to see them live.

That was due largely to a concert album where I kept skipping, just cringing at the puerile humor, much of which seemed to focus on molestation. That makes the maturity one of the really striking things about Nine.

It's not just that it sounds grown up, and it certainly doesn't sound old. It does feel like they have outgrown the need to be obnoxious (which could be fun, but so easily slip into annoying).

Nine does not feel like a rejection of the past. The thirteenth track, titled "On Some Emo Sh*t", feels like a direct reference to roots. It may include some grieving, and closure on some of the separations.

Beyond that, it feels like a completion of the direction that started on California. It turns out that result is really, really good.

I guess that is growing up.

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