"Ghosts on the Dancefloor" opens the album strongly, with a song about feeling the pain of losing someone you loved and then having to deal with seeing visions of them as you go throughout life. The song is catchy, and is a great opener for the album and one of my favorites.
The party continues in "Natives", a song on which Mark Hoppus shines. Hoppus and DeLonge swapping vocal duties never fails to impress me, as I almost always enjoy songs where they share rather than sing by themselves. Ripping basslines and catchy melodies make this song another favorite of mine.
"Up All Night" is possibly the best song on the album, and served well as the lead single. Uptempo beats and crashing drums lead into the first verse,where we hear Tom's distinct vocals really stand out. The phenomenal track talks of partying too hard, and how the demons of the past may keep him up all night. The song fades out,the tears back in with hard guitar riffs and drums that pick up speed until the song ends abruptly,but amazingly nonetheless. Check out the video!
"Snake Charmer" is up for debate for me, but it is possibly my favorite on the album. The song has a wonderful intro that starts off slow,builds tempo,and then unleashes a massive guitar rage on your ears. The only words I can use to describe how this song makes you feel when listening is "takes you to another planet". It blew me away on the first listen, and the 7 consecutive plays that followed it. It definitely draws influence from the bands side projects, most noticeably Angels & Airwaves (Tom's band). Despite the outside influence, the song is unique and incredible in it's own way, and contains my favorite lyrics from the entire album,as Tom sings "I felt a stutter and a waiver,cut in like a razor,then straight down to the bone"
The sixth track serves as a break in the album, the album's interlude as the name implies, "Heart's All Gone Interlude". The song is a very nice touch to the album, as it draws you in, expecting a buildup, which happens as it crashes into "Heart's All Gone"
I don't want to pick favorites in the band, but sometimes I just love hearing Mark's vocals over Tom's. "Heart's All Gone" is a fast paced,uptempo song,reminiscent of old school blink. Hoppus sings "You say you speak from your heart but your heart's all gone" and wails of how a woman has lied to him and what he has to do to get past this, such as the line "Let's drink ourselves to death". This is one of the album's strongest points,and one of my top favorites on the album, as it reminds me of what made me fall in love with the band.
"Wishing Well" is a DeLonge drive and influenced song. Not a bad song, by any means, it stands out and has many admirable qualities to it, but does not make my top favorites list.
"This is Home" is another favorite of mine, something about the line "we dance like fuckin' animals" makes me laugh and enjoy this song even more.
Mark Hoppus comes through strong again on the track "MH 4.18.11" This song reminds me of older blink as well, but with a more mature polished sound. It's one of the best on the album in my opinion, and i'm glad it was included on the standard edition of the album as well.
"Love is Dangerous" What can i say about this song. I don't like it. It's whiny. It's repetitive. It's too much, and not enough. Sorry.
"Fighting the Gravity" is a track that has really grown on me" It's eerie opening of Hoppus quickly repeating "this makes no sense this makes no sense" is what has drawn me in. I've had a change of heart about it, and consider it a B grade track for the album, but still very good.
The album closes with "Even If She Falls" which a simply amazing song, and a great song to end the album on. The way DeLonge ends each chorus after singing of various things, always ending on "even if she falls in love" Word has it this song could see more exposure thanks to Ryan Seacrest, who loved the song, said it was his favorite off of "Neighborhoods" and will start playing it on his radio show, which is very popular. Hopefully this means good things for Blink!
Well guys, after listening to this album over 15 times all the way through now, I've had a total change of heart and opinion about this album. It's definitely not what I was expecting, but now I see it as the band moving forward with a great new song, instead of lingering in the past. These guys have still not grown up by any means, as I recently saw them in concert and witnessed Mark Hoppus dry hump a microphone and Tom sing about fucking a dog. "Neighborhoods" is a great album, and I praise the album's experimentation, and award the album a 97% approval rating,with a very high replay factor.Hope you guys enjoyed this,check me out on youtube.com/AlbumReviewTV as well,and subscribe to my blog for all the latest in the music world.
Peace-Jon
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