open your ears

Blink-182 | Going Away To College

I love this song. To anybody who’s into pop-punk…this song is a must. Of course I could have picked any of Blink’s songs, but I feel like this one isn’t talked about enough. It’s just a simple, hearty hymn of a young adult’s life…I mean most of Blink’s music is, but this one in particular.

From start to finish it is so well written. The guitar riff in the beginning is just so exquisite and fun. Seriously, pick up your guitar or ukulele or whatever and try to play it. Those four intro chords are just so juicy and yet so simple. And the best part about it…they already sound like youth. They sound like college life. If you wouldn’t know the title, you would probably still get this feeling of teenage ugliness and angst. That’s what makes blink so awesome. They manage to compose those feelings in their songs. Well…maybe it’s the film industry that just overused those pop-punk tunes in movies like American Pie, etc.

But back to the music. Before we hear any words we are greeted by this little explosion of sound the band produces at 00:18. Let’s call it the pre-verse. You hear Mark Hoppus’ driving bass lines, Tom DeLonge’s signature du-du-da, du-du-da and Travis Barker’s aggressive drum playing. You almost forget that there are only three guys playing (although the guitars are most certainly doubled).

As we enter the verse at 00:28, we feel a slight shift in space. What happens is: the guitar slowly fades away and leaves room for bass, drums and Mark’s little tale of youth. This is an important step from a production standpoint because otherwise the song would blast through with the same power and there wouldn’t be any room to grow. In this way we can take a breather until the pre-chorus begins.

00:37 Now we’ve made it to the pre-chorus. For the first time we hear more than one voice. It’s still just Mark singing, but he layered his voice. It’s not so easy to distinguish how many voices are singing, but I would say it’s a double-tracked lead vocal (this means the same melody gets sung twice and is then layered in the mix) and a double-tracked backing vocal. Unfortunately the harmonies are very subtle in relation to the mix. That’s why I can’t really say how often we hear Mark’s voice. After this short pre-chorus we aren’t switching to the chorus. No…it’s back to the pre-verse. What now happens is mostly the same as before. Now we just wait for the chorus to hit.

And boy…does it hit. I won’t talk about the lyrics, but I will mention the subtle rawness and slides in Mark’s voice when he sings those double-tracked lines (01:14): “I haven’t been this scared …” and “And I’m so unprepared …”. And the second parts of those lines now certainly feature 3-part-harmonies respectively. And all of those parts are sung by Mark. They fill out all the space that is left and complete the mix.

After the chorus we now go back to the pre-verse. No difference there.

What do we hear when going back to the verse at 01:42? Tom just doesn’t stop with those du-du-das. And this, ladies and gentlemen, wouldn’t have been possible if they wouldn’t have created the space in the 1st verse. This only works because of that.

02:19 Interlude time: let’s bring back the intro as a way to build up to the last chorus. And what better way to build up than some tasty drum rolls and some subtle bass lines.

02:37 Now we are back with our last chorus. A last explosion before ending it all off with a last “This world’s an ugly place, but you’re so beautiful.” Thank you, Blink!

I myself love listening to Blink the most in the summer time. I don’t know why, but putting on Blink in any other season just doesn’t hit as hard as when you’re sitting in your car, feeling the heat of the sun and letting the whole neighborhood know what great music taste you have by blasting Blink through your open window.