Grade: A
It’s official — Blink-182 is back. “Neighborhoods,” the band’s first album in eight years, is classic Blink pop-punk perfection. Even after a side-project-spawning “indefinite hiatus,” Tom DeLonge and the boys have picked up right where they left off. They seem to have mated the sounds from their other bands, Angels and Airwaves and +44, to birth the newest Blink album. “Neighborhoods” combines low-key emo tracks with fast-paced singles in just the right proportions. While some songs like bonus track “Fighting the Gravity” have a chill, kick-back vibe, tracks like “Heart’s All Gone” bring back feelings of teenage angst. Blink-182 has grown up — the tracks are deeper and mature, but there’s still some good old fashioned broken-heart crooning. “Neighborhoods” is just what Blink-182 fans have been waiting for.