Blink-182

Blink-182: Dogs Eating DogsDogs Eating Dogs (2012)
self-released

Reviewer Rating: 4.5

User Rating:

Contributed by: lostcausegiveuplostcausegiveup
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on December 21st 2012When Blink-182 said that they were working on new material, and we could expect it a lot faster than Neighborhoods, I kind of had my doubts. A lot of bands say that, (Propagandhi, I'm looking at you here) but still take forever to get songs out the door. These guys made good on the promise this time.

When Blink-182 said that they were working on new material, and we could expect it a lot faster than Neighborhoods, I kind of had my doubts. A lot of bands say that, (Propagandhi, I'm looking at you here) but still take forever to get songs out the door. These guys made good on the promise this time, and I am really happy with the results.

Does Dogs Eating Dogs sound like Neighborhoods? It does, in a lot of ways. The guitar tone and layers are definitely still there, and Tom's voice is still Tom's voice, for better or worse. The thing that had me excited for this EP was that they were actually going to be recording together instead of in separate states and recording rooms. I think it definitely made for a more cohesive set of songs than their previous effort. And the songs overall are much more up-tempo than the last album.

The opening track "When I Was Young" starts off with a soft keyboard intro, but picks up the pace fairly early on in the song, and features some nice drumming from Mr. Barker. The chorus is satisfying, with Tom doing the brunt of the singing, and Mark chiming in "It doesn't matter." The second track, "Dogs Eating Dogs," is a Mark song, and is one of my favorites on the EP. It does bear mentioning that the track comes plagiarously (is that a word? It is now) close to a +44 song called "Lycanthrope." But hell, two thirds of Blink were in that band, and I happened to love that song too. And Tom sings an excellent chorus including the lyrics "I am numb to the shot / I have a crippling fear of heights / 'Cause the fall sounds a lot like a symphony of cries." All in all, I think the lyrics on the EP show a ton of growth from a band that wrote "It's Labor Day and my Grandpa just ate seven fucking hot dogs / And he shit, shit, shit his pants / He's always fucking shitting his pants."

"Disaster" is a little more low-key than the first two tracks, but has a nice swirly sound to it, and again has Tom and Mark singing together. You get the feeling that they actually wrote these songs together instead of emailing bits and pieces back and forth. "Boxing Day" was the first song released from this EP and is an acoustic number sung by Tom. It reminds me a little of one of their hidden tracks from Take off Your Pants and Jacket, and has one of my favorite (though sad) choruses they've written in a while, with Mark plaintively singing "I'm empty like the day after Christmas / Swept beneath the wave of your goodbye." A beautiful little tune.

When I saw that the closing track was featuring someone named "Yelawolf," I was more than a little worried this would be some hip-hop Travis Barker-infused mess (I also have to confess I have no idea who Yelawolf is). I was pleasantly surprised to find "Pretty Little Girl" is a new wave-influenced song with a neat muffled picking piece throughout the verse, and pretty traditional Blink chorus. The rap bit at the end I probably could have done without, but I'm not much into hip-hop. It's got a good flow, and it's pretty cleverly rhymed, so I think it may end up growing on me.

All in all, I have to say that despite my doubts, this is a "return of Blink-182" much more than Neighborhoods was, and if you like Blink-182 at all, you owe it to yourself to give it a thorough listen. Dogs Eating Dogs is going to be one of my EPs of the year, I'm quite sure.

Login to rate this album

People who liked this also liked:

Please login or register to post comments.What are the benefits of having a Punknews.org account?

Share your opinion by posting comments on the stories that interest you
Rate music and bands and help shape the weekly top ten
Let Punknews.org use your ratings to help you find bands and albums you might like
Customize features on the site to get the news the way you want.

Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

Daviedos9966 (April 17, 2013)

What the guy three comments below me said..

alysonrose (March 5, 2013)

Great review. I honestly think that Blink are still trying to get away from the whole "sounding like Angels and Airwaves and 44 had a baby" type of sound. But you can't exactly blame them. I don't think they just want to jump right back into stuff like "Take Off Your Pants and Jacket," becasue it would be too soon and they would seem like sellouts. No matter what band you are, or what you've been through, not every one of your fans are going to like what you did. You can't please everyone in the music industry, and Blink 182 are a great example of that. Awesome EP. Can't wait for the next full length.

meggersmusic137 (December 30, 2012)

Lots of people are not very impressed with this album.. But I have to say that I really enjoyed it. I also really liked Neighborhoods. Neighborhoods and the new EP are somewhat different from lots of their older stuff. Slower. Calmer almost. They do have some more upbeat songs, such as Dogs eating dogs, which is one of my favorite on the album. I also really liked When I was young, the is just.. amazing. Those two songs are some of my favorite blink songs now.
Boxing day was nice too, it was a little slow for my liking, but I really liked the guitar in it. But I didn't really like Pretty Little Girl.. and the rapping just made it worse. Blink was one of the bands that I counted on to not have the stupid little rap solo, type thing in their music. So I really hope that it doesn't continue.
But overall, definitly worth a listen! It is a great EP, and Neighborhoods was a great cd. They may not be as upbeat as before, but they are still the same Blink 182 under it all.

desertburst92 (December 23, 2012)

its Angels and Airwaves plus Mark everyone once in a while

telegraphrocks (December 23, 2012)

Didn't plan on listening to this, but the high-score has led me to download it. I'll eventually get to it.
"MH.4.18.11" (title?) was a good song from Neighborhoods, so... who knows. I still like Mark's voice a lot.

alarmcock (December 23, 2012)

I love Green Day, but I can't understand how anyone could like Blink 182 past the age of ten. That's when I stopped. incidentally, that's when I first saw them live, and got to see how awful they were in person.

thisrespirator (December 22, 2012)

The worst thing I've listened to all year, and I've listened to Somethin' 'Bout Kreay a lot.

juloo (December 22, 2012)

better listen to AvA.

MN_DrNick (December 22, 2012)

Oof...... what a piece of shit.

thrillho (December 21, 2012)

was hoping that I'm not gonna like this

paulrulzdood (December 21, 2012)

well done review, I like how direct and to the point it is. I shall give this a whirl. I thought Neighborhoods was OK, it had some solid tracks, but overall was a let-down due to the overproduction and disjointed/sterile feel of if having been recorded piecemeal instead of as a, ya know, band.

Tom's voice is Toms' voice indeed, but if it sounds tighter/cohesive and a little more direct, i'm sure i'll like it. My other complaint with Neighborhoods also was the tempo; way too slow for what we're used to from Blink and what we know Travis can do in a fast song. Some of them like "wishing well" were practically begging to be sped up to the classic Blink skate-punk double-time beat. If "wishing well" had the tempo of "reckless abandon", it would have been an instant classic instead of a "yea that songs decent...it builds up but never pops". hopefully these songs pop. i'll give it a shot.

Paul

nickvicious (December 21, 2012)

Pretty sure the PN community is gonna down vote this without listening just because it's blink.

walkingisstillhonest (December 21, 2012)

I like this EP a lot, even if Tom's verses on "Boxing Day" do sound like Smash Mouth. Try to listen to that song without going "Let's get started, the faint and brokenhearted/I ain't the sharpest tool in the sheeeeeddddddd."

But seriously, even if all the other songs sucked (which they don't), "When I Was Young" makes everything worth it. That song fucking rips.

nocontrol (December 21, 2012)

I can't stop listening to this ep. the only song i dislike is pretty little girl. dogs eating dogs,disaster, and when i was young are great. the song dogs eating dogs is up there in my top 5 blink songs.

OffspringKickAss (December 21, 2012)

Better than Neighborhoods, but not as good as Chesire Cat. There next release is hopefully stronger than this.

dordon (December 21, 2012)

These songs are infinitely better than Neighborhoods. Dogs Eating Dogs is one of my most favorite blink tracks ever now.

luke01 (December 21, 2012)

I think I like 2 or 3 tracks on this EP. Which is a HELL of a lot more than I can say for Neighborhoods or S/T or even the one before that. Kinda weird that this is the first Blink 182 record that I've liked in over 10 years.

Icapped2pac (December 21, 2012)

I wasn't even going to check this out, but you had me at Lycanthrope. That's a killer song, so if there's something similar here, I need to at least give this a spin. I'll steer clear of the Yelawolf though. I wish I could day I've been able to do in general in the past. He's vomitous.

you-sexy-goose (December 21, 2012)

I can't say I enjoyed this in the slightest. :/

brangelina (December 21, 2012)

exitenglish1208 (December 21, 2012)

i like this EP but that yelawolf catastrophe is worth at LEAST a star, so an otherwise perfect EP would top out at 4 stars for me. I mean, travis JUST put out a record with that guy did he really need to be on this? ugh. and what blink 182 fan ever uttered the words "you know what this band needs? a shitty rap part...yeah"

all in all i'd say it's decent but the ned really soured it.