![]() ![]() In August 2008, the band’s longtime producer Jerry Finn died at 39 of a cerebral haemorrhage. In the end, it took two back-to-back tragedies to spark Blink’s reunion. To most observers, the chances of Blink returning from the dead were remote. Communications had largely broken down completely – between 20 DeLonge did not speak at all to his former bandmates. He would go off to found overwrought art rock group Angels & Airwaves, while bass guitarist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker released one album with pop punk act +44, which failed to match Blink’s success. ![]() Creative and personal differences had led to vocalist and lead guitarist Tom DeLonge departing the band. In truth the term ‘hiatus’ hid an acrimonious split. Work on the follow-up to Blink’s 2003 self-titled album (a record which incidentally is now universally praised but which split listeners at the time) ran into a juddering halt when the band declared an ‘indefinite hiatus’ in 2005. To say Neighbourhoods had had a tortured production would be understating things. Sometimes though, the ugly duckling turns out to have been a swan the whole time, and nearly a decade after its release Neighborhoods deserves a reappraisal – it’s an occasionally disjointed but ambitious and compelling record up there with Blink’s best. ![]() To this day it is remembered by many fans and critics as the ugly duckling of Blink’s DeLonge era – an awkward, little-loved record that doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the band’s more celebrate back catalogue. For the band itself, the record would be remembered as one made in difficult and increasingly frustrating circumstances, and the acrimony surrounding its creation would ultimately contribute to founding member Tom DeLonge quitting the band (again) in 2015. For many fans the much-anticipated record – the first to be released since Blink’s reformation the year before after a years-long hiatus – was a disappointment, a step down from the band’s turn-of-the-millennium glory years. Neighborhoods, Blink-182’s sixth album (seventh if you include their 1994 demo), was released on September 27th 2011 to mixed reviews and underwhelming sales. ![]()
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