Blink-182 sounds so much like Disintegration it makes me want to wet myself; especially “I’m Lost Without You,” a completely worthy successor to “Untitled” — okay, maybe not a worthy successor, but perhaps the best SoCal punk goth song I can think of right now. Lots and lots of synthesizers and crazy Travis Barker drum cut-ups abound on this album — I suppose “Feeling This” is a nice reference point; replace those harmonies at the end with guitars and you’ve got a third of this album (that song is really great, too).

I don’t know if I’m obligated to dislike this ’cause I so regularly trash things like this — and I’m surprised that I’m not pissed off there’s no bangers like “Josie” on here. No more crazy punk thrash. In comes Robert Smith (his appearance is pretty great, too).

I think the only thing holding this back from being an arena-rock golden nugget are the ridiculous teen (like, fifteen-year-old) angst lyrics. I mean — lyrics were never Blink’s strong point, and now that this album is “emotional” or whatever, of course they’re gonna be pushed farther up and noticed much more.

But this lush wash almost completely makes up for them. No Doubt, eat your collective new wave-pillaging re-punking hearts out.