Song Blog: Blink 182 – Up All Night

When I first heard Blink 182’s latest album Neighborhoods I was surprised, in all the best ways. While their self-titled release in the early 2000’s was a bit more mature than Enema of the State and Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, they were still stuck in my head as the goofy pop-punk trio who made fart and poop jokes. (I wonder how painful it is for them to listen to The Mark, Tom, and Travis Show all these years later.) Neighborhoods is an emo-ish album that shows how the band has grown in the decade they were out of the spotlight.

No song on the album more than “Up All Night.” We’ve gone from “Mom and dad possess the key/instant slavery/I’ll pack my bags I swear I’ll run/wish my friends were 21” of “Anthem” to “Did I get this straight/do you want me here?/As I struggle through/each and every year.” The concerns of the guys of Blink 182 have grown from how to get around mom and dad, to figuring out what it means to be an adult.

It’s odd to have a band that you feel grows up with you. Enema of the State was released the summer leading into 8th grade. It was the album I listened to non-stop over that summer. Take Off Your Pants and Jacket came out heading into sophomore year of high school, and I thought the wordplay of the album title was hilarious (now it just makes me roll my eyes). A decade later Neighborhoods came out. An album I checked out only because I could do so for free on Spotify, that much like those albums of the past has become something I’ve listened to countless times. Something that fits where my life is now.

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