This might be the best piece to ever grace the site. I have the album on this morning and will be reaching out to old friends today as like your experience I'm certainly time traveling while listening to these songs. Its never a bad day to remind people of the impact they have made on your life. Thanks Tate for making this community possible for so many years!
Great review! And also thank you for Absolutepunk and now Chorus also being a constant part of my life and bringing so much joy and helped me define who I am with all the cool music you and all the collaborators have shown me over the years
Beautiful review, Jason. Is this the best album of the year? Maybe not. But can it be my favorite album of the year because of all the excitement and joy around it and how much it makes you appreciate all the love and positive things in life? Hell yes it can. My personal favorite album I've heard so far this year.
A good friend just sent this over. Just wow. Incredibly written, very powerful stuff. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and stories!
@Jason Tate this hit me so hard today. so many people's teenage experiences encapsulated here. so thankful for this band and this music scene
Here to just echo everyone else's sentiments @Jason Tate - what a perfectly crafted encapsulation of this journey. Well done.
Bravo, Jason. Brought back all sorts of emotions from my own childhood. I have been lurking/reading/supporting the chorus.fm/absolutepunk community since high school, circa 2001-ish. I felt every sentiment and concur with every word in this review. Loved it and love this album. perfection.
Awesome write up. Getting to see them play, a new album and even meeting Tom this year feels bittersweet. Like in a weird sense everything has come full circle with the band for me. I love seeing everyone’s stories here it’s a reminder how much Blink means to people.
I do not know the last time I logged into here, but it had to have been 6-7 years ago now, so I figured this review was a fitting time to log back in after so long and say that this was a beautiful love letter to the band and memories of youth in general. Thank you so much for letting us be a part of those memories. And of course, I cannot wait for the album to experience it as well.
Yeah, great work. I especially like the hourglass line. It has an almost Gatsby type of feel, as do other portions of the writing. Being 40 myself, reading this evokes the same feelings as listening to the new album. A very fitting piece.
Holy fuck, I wasn't expecting to feel this way when I clicked to open the review. We must've had similar lives, right around the same time. You got me re-living my own growing up, I was 14 when I found Blink through hearing Enema at my friend's house and I've loved them since that day (inc the Skiba-era). I'm 38 now and I miss the shit out of my old friends and that time of my life. I honestly feel like I never grew up, I moved to America got married and have a 15yo kid but I still feel like that kid from the early 2000s, watching shit like the Dude, Where's My Car?, Harold and Kumar, and American Pie movies, listening to these bands, smoking weed, skating the local spots and basically just having a fuck ton of fun and making memories, connecting over bands we love. When I got to hear the album yesterday morning, it was like being back there, re-living all of it ... it felt really nice, it made me happy! The fact that 3 dudes from one band, from my childhood can make me feel this way is kinda nuts. It's just really nice to see them reconnect again and be back together and happy. I didn't find AP.net until March 2005 but I've been around since then. @Jason Tate, Thank you for putting me on to so many bands over the years and for running such an awesome website(s). You have honestly helped shape my musical tastes more than anyone.
I thought this was Absolute PUNK not Absolute CRY Wonderful write up homie. Like yourself and many others, I can relate to the way music often makes it impossible to ignore the marching of time. The way you’ve laid that out here feels more comforting than dreadful - I appreciate & admire that. I also don’t need to be an occasional Supporter Forum lurker to know how long you’ve wanted to capture these thoughts in ink, because it’s already been evident for years. I hope you’re even half as proud of it as any Chorus.fm member should be
I like that this is written kinda like chapter IV of Watchmen, the dr. Manhattan one, and I appreciate the Stand by Me reference. Nice one.
A friend let me borrow a copy of Dude Ranch back in 8th grade, and much of the rest of my music experience with this band/genre mirrors yours. I recently turned 40 and started following AbsolutePunk in high school. Thank you for putting the journey into words better than I ever could. I hope this review makes its way back to the band.
This review is awesome Jason, can absolutely relate to the feelings this band means. Absolutely worth the time and effort you put into writing it up
My first entry into blink was my best friend recording the video for Dammit on VHS off MTV. He had talked them up for days, saying I had to watch it. So one day after school I stopped by his house (as I’d do on most days) and was hooked immediately. We were already into the whole Epitaph / Fat Wreck Chords scene, Green Day, Offspring, etc. but something just felt so different with blink. They were a band we could claim as our own. I’d say more but Jason covered what I’d consider a very similar path to now.
This is the only review thats needed. Everyone else may aswell not bother. You encapsulated what blink 182 means for a lot of people.