Blink-182

Uh-oh, it’s the serious album. Yes, Blink-182, the goof-punk trio best known for streaking naked through their own videos, are trying a new kind of nakedness—the emotional kind. Blink’s excessive silliness has long masked some rather anguished lyrics, but here they do away with most of the silliness altogether, and it works. “Violence” strips the band’s buoyant melodies from the verses, leaving only a stark, compelling beat. “I saw him again/I know you fucked him again,” Tom DeLonge offers during a portentous lull between angry, slashing power chords on “Obvious,” setting the stage for Mark Hoppus’ own brooding turn on the downcast, piano-adorned “I Miss You.” Any lingering confusion about the band’s direction is cleared up when the Cure’s infamous sad sack, Robert Smith, shows up to lend his voice to “All of This” and to give Blink’s new miserable-ism his esteemed blessing in the process.