Remember when I said Jason isn’t saying enough about this album and it made me nervous? This exchange has settled those nerves
Yeah Greg and Tom are both phenomenal lyricists, and I like that their styles are completely different. And obviously Mr. B Fallon is top tier as well. This is why I think the Menzingers and Gaslight (including all of Brian's other stuff) really stand out from their peers.
I just read the last 3 pages of this thread and I can't believe some of you folks are worried about the lyrics on a blink-182 record. "All the Small Things" is like one of the best rock singles of that decade and the most belt-along part is "late night, come home. work sucks, I know." Those aren't even sentences!
What?? You don’t like the lyrics: I'm a punk rock kid, I came from hell with a curse She tried to pray it away, so I fucked her in church
A 47 year old calling himself a kid makes me cringe so hard haha just write music that's appropriate for your age
I don't see any difference in saying "why are you worried about the music on a blink record" instead. And then adding something in the vein of "this is just for fun, shut off your brain, they are not Beethoven". Lyrics are a major component of songs and some people clearly care - blink fans included. The quality conversation leads nowhere because it always ends up with people using the weakest stuff as a caricature. I swear we could take any acclaimed artist and do the same. Maybe if it becomes about trying to describe the issue it works better. I will leave the untitled lyrics out of discussion so it doesn't become a conversation of "dark = good" and "fun = bad". If we take a song like "What's My Age Again" there is a specificity and certain quirkiness to it. It's funny with an undercurrent of melancholy as simple as the lyrics are. Many Enema songs are that way. Now, if you look at "Fell In Love" or "When We Were Young" it's just the most lazy and trite writing possible. Like, let's make a song about being drunk, having sex and falling in love. And all you will get is words literally saying "I was drunk, we had sex and fell in love". No subtlety, no life, not anything. If they are no good or not better than "x", ok, whatever. But there's no denying these lyrics are different... Over the course of more than 150 songs, blink has different type of lyrics.
Lotta people gonna be eating crow when the band you fell in love with for stuff like: Fuck this place, I lost the war I hate you all, your mom's a whore Where's my dog? 'Cause girls are such a drag and I wore cologne to get the feeling right We started making out and she took off my pants and Some girls try too hard And some girls try too hard to impress With the way that they dress With those things on their chests And the things they suggest to me are able to take another group of very dumb lines and make you sing along!
It's one of my favorite records of all-time and the lyrics in those 3 aren't bad to the point of detracting how much I love them. They work without shining. But what's good about these? Or is it the real difference that JEW is viewed as a sensitive, introspective, serious band and blink not? "Stay with me You're the one I need You make the hardest things seem easy" "You can't save me this time Hope comes from inside and I feel so low tonight" "Can we take a ride? Get out of this place while we still have time You want to take a ride?" "I can't say I was never wrong But some blame rests on you Work and play, they're never okay to mix the way we do "We'll never be the same, never feel this way again Never again. Just tonight? Okay" Now I'll say: "Look! So shitty and clichéd. Reads like middle school poetry" to prove my point. "Oh, Jim has always been a shitty lyricist. Who cares? It's all the same. They should just go instrumental next time. Then people won't complain".
but ... none of those songs are shitty and cliche or read like middle school poetry though? Like ... "Work" is a really well written pop song. Don't think we're not serious When's it ever not? The love we make is give and it's take I'm game to play along All I can say I shouldn't say Can we take a ride? Get out of this place while we still have time All the best DJs are saving Their slowest song for last When the dance is through, it's me and you Come on, would it really be so bad? The things we think might be the same But I won't fight for more (I won't fight for more) It's just not me to wear it on my sleeve Count on that for sure Fucking rules.
My favorite Tom Delonge moment during Warped Tour during a thunderstorm that rained it out: "WE'RE ANGELS AND AIRWAVES. WE PLAY RAIN OR FUCKIN' SHINE!" "... GOODNIGHT!" *walks off stage*
For me, those specifically are too plain. Reads like cheesy romantic dialogue or bad diary writing. It's not awful, it works in the songs but doesn't really add to them or gives much of a mental image. Same thing in a track like "Always", which has some of the weakest lines in Untitled. Counter-counter-point: then what is bad about blink's? 'Cause I quoted some lyrics I consider amongst their strongest and there's no apparent reason to say that is clumsy but these JEW ones rule?
(Mostly the sexism, ableism, and homophobia.) But what started this conversation was talking about songwriters as a whole, and their entire catalog of music. What Jim Adkins has in his catalog of songwriting is a mountain of things to go and pull from and point at. The "best" Blink lyrics are on one album (I'd argue there's better stuff on Dude Ranch, but alas) and they're still pretty forced and have some real clunkers on there, but the vast majority of their Mark/Tom songs are in a different category. Buddah, Cheshire, Enema, TOYPAJ make up the big chunk of their catalog, and they have some really great songs. With not great lyrics. And then there's the untitled album, which when held up against the other albums of that era ... Sing the Sorrow, As the Eternal Cowboy, Transatlantism, Full Collapse ... are just clearly not on the same level lyrically. Again, they write really good songs! But it's not some crazy stretch to admit their lyrics are not great!