Stay Together For The Kids, blink-182
As pop punk bands go, blink’s repertoire is very diverse. Their discography ranges from songs that are literally a cheerful string of curse words with no grammar or punctuation to songs written from the perspective of a teenager about to commit suicide. Stay Together for the Kids falls closer to the latter; its a very weighted and sobering topic, and Tom, Mark and Travis use the song to treat the subject of divorce with truly passionate angst. All three of them are a part of broken families, and their own personal experiences explicitly empower their musical prowess to pour out the emotions they’ve all contained via their instruments. The soulful guitar strumming throughout represents only a portion of the anguish represented by being a child with divorced parents. Travis stays subtle during the verses and uses the chorus to explode outward in a flurry of powerful and rapid drumming, which displays another side of the inward vicious anger that can only be released forcefully. The lyrics are a good excuse not to be reserved; they invite listeners to use this song however they want. One can listen to this when feeling angry, sad, rejected, aggressive, or really just to sing along loudly with the chorus. I finally saw blink live for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and the first few notes from Tom’s guitar at the beginning of this one made the crowd go insane as they eagerly anticipated that exceptionally vehement outlet genres like pop punk offers its fans. This is a song for many moods, so use it frequently and without hesitation.
Those of you who know me were probably wondering why it was taking me so long to post about blink. Tom, Mark and Travis have so much to offer in so many of their songs that the past two weeks since joining Turntablr have been an epic saga of listening to their library over and over to find the one that I felt most moved to write about up on here. And the winner is… What’s My Age Again? Mostly because every aspect of this song perfectly exemplifies why pop punk is such a hidden gem of a genre. It’s lighthearted, making fun of an awkward teenage/young adult social situation, and doing so with all the poise and grace of dudes who like to run around nude in their music videos. One reason blink is so great is that their songs truly highlight real and common situations that could easily be overwhelming and destructive in a young person’s development… and then mock the hell out of them.
Lyrically, this song is a stoke of brilliance. Every line is hilarious, and by the end of the song the listener is split between feeling really sorry for this guy and wanting to run as far away from him as possible. Per usual, Tom and Mark do their thing with catchy and vocal-guiding strings that don’t go too far out of the box. Travis, of course, rocks the crap out of the drums and his speed, dexterity, and power is exemplified every time he sits down behind a kit. This was a great song to listen to starting from those awkward early teen years and its still great to throw on for a listen today.
