Last month there were a lot of choices for the monthly pontification about music.  A lot of great stuff was released. So it was a contentious month with not having enough time to listen to everything enough times to immerse myself in the inner musings of each. But here we are and I picked one.

And...I wanted to hate it. I wanted to write a negative review about it. But I couldn't. Why? Because it’s pretty damn good.

At surface level, I knew blink-182 was releasing a new album. Then, I found out that guitarist Tom DeLonge was not returning and was still chasing UFOs with the FBI and had not made amends with bassist Mark Hoppus.  Following that, I discovered that Matt Skiba from Alkaline Trio was stepping in.  I love Alkaline Trio so one would think this to be badass. To me it meant the imminent end of a below the radar band I've listed to and enjoyed for a long time. Also, Skiba is a different musician than DeLonge. Would this just be filler or would he contribute to the creative process?

So here we are. And it’s good.  “California” by blink-182 is the group’s first album since the breakup and the first in five years.

Some songs reflect that nostalgic blink-182 that never took itself too seriously.  You know, the one that joked about genitalia and self-gratification.  There are those types of songs on this record.  But more importantly, there are songs that sound of that ‘vintage’ of blink-182.  And for me, the nostalgia was much needed.  It really reminded me of Long Beach and 4918 E Ferro Street.  So many memories from that chapter of my life.  The ‘official’ beginning of me and my wife and a brand of wheels with my family name on them being sold at a premium in a white-hot automotive aftermarket industry are some of the memories coming from the nostalgia.  “Bored to Death” sounds so much like “Adam’s Song” it’s eerie.  Same chords?  Maybe.

Then, there are songs on the album which are the maturation of the melodic pop punk moody nature of Hoppus.  These are the real joy here.  As a fellow punk rock father, I can relate to the growth and age but still rooted in our immaturity and knowing that the dark thoughts of trials and tribulations are always right around the corner.  “Home is Such a Lonely Place” is beautiful in its fragility.  I never thought I would write that in a column about blink-182.  This is an amazing capture of a fractured relationship.  And in all seriousness, we can relate to the tone as it’s very close to home.

And then there’s the homage to the golden state.  “California,” “Los Angeles” and “San Diego” wrap the album in a glossy tribute to sun and fun.

It took a few listens for me to really ‘like’ this album.  Some of this is due to the psychological wall I built with the knowledge that Tom DeLonge wasn’t involved in this.  Maybe I’m a blink purist if there is such a thing.  But as I listened to it steady from top to bottom, it really started to grow on me.  There’s just enough of the vintage blink-182 sound wrapped with songs with a growing full sound of maturity.  I guess it is the audio equivalent of my last 20 years of growing up.  I just wrote ‘growing up’ in a blog.  The end must be near.  It’s tough to stay youthful after a 20 year career. Your mindset is in adulthood and you can feel that in the music. The childish stuff like in the past is now tempered through being a grown up with kids old enough to get it.  But that’s why I relate to this record.  It’s the same but different much like me.

After listening to it a bunch, I went out on the wide world of internets and checked what the consensus was about the album from people in the ‘know.’  It was a mixed bag.  Some liked it because it was good to have them back even though the music and lyrics weren’t challenging.  It was a piece of SoCal nostalgia from the 2000s.  Then there were others that felt that the new Drake record was better and there was no need for a retread of a the cool kids from back in the day turning into sad das, hitting bottom, and churning out something like the early 2000s.  Them there were the shades in between finding goodness and badness inside its musical trappings.

“California” is a good album.  Not great.  Not bad. Just somewhere in between.  It’s kind of like the Goldilocks of blink albums.  Overall, it was better than expected and is worthy of listening.