MCA Records – 21 May 2002
Of all the Blink branches in all the world, you had to hang on to this one
In the not-so-recent yet not-so-distant past, in the early millennium in Southern California, a band was formed. The band was formed by Blink-182’s Tom Delonge and Travis Barker called Box Car Racer. This band was created just after Blink-182’s fantastic record Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. Many people are aware of Angels & Airwaves, Tom’s side project turned main project. Many people are also aware of +44, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker’s project after the disbanding of Blink-182 in 2005. However, before Angels & Airwaves and before +44, before Tom left Blink for the second time in 2015 to work with the government on exposing alien agendas and acclimatizing the masses to the extraterrestrial presence on earth, there was Box Car Racer.
This project was birthed out of Tom’s longing for more expression than he felt Blink afforded him. Originally it was slated to be an acoustic album, but the self-titled album that came, as a result, was something that offered a more intimate glimpse into Tom’s musicianship and lyrics. After the album’s release, it peaked at number 12 on the Billboard 200. Not too shabby at all. It gives a nice mix of fairly straightforward instrumentation while exploring topics, themes, and sounds that are undoubtedly their own.
The first track on the album is called “I Feel So”, and it garnered a good amount of attention. It was the first of only two songs to be released as a single, and allows the singer an opportunity to show a sensitive, yet aggressive and angsty side of himself. It feels like a moment that Tom had been waiting for to really air out his frustrations with himself and others. The second song “All Systems Go” has a very similar feel but implores the listener to join in the frustration or “get left behind”.
The album’s third track, “Watch the World” sheds light on sociopolitical issues and also dips its toes into an imaginary future where the singer sees solutions to these problems that he hopes will be remembered for forthcoming generations to benefit from. The fourth track, “Tiny Voices” explores how ordinary citizens have the chance to be heard but oftentimes resign themselves to being silenced or discouraged by the powers that be.
However, when I first listened to this album, there was one song that really stuck out to me. And to this day, 20 years later, I still love it as much as the first time I heard it. At heart, I’m a Blink-182 fan before any other offshoot projects by the band members. So, it should come as no surprise that my absolute favorite song on the album is the twelfth track, entitled “Elevator”. This song features Mark Hoppus, making it feel like a legit Blink-182 song while maintaining the integrity of the album’s aim. The guitar tones are clean, and the drums are nothing to write home about, but the concept, lyrics, and execution are what makes this song such a winner in my book. The first verse, sung by Tom, is told from the first-person perspective of a man who has leaped from the top of a building and is on his way to his splattery, sidewalk-y demise. The lyric that rings in my head from this verse is “The building turned its back, ignored my call / The concrete looks too thin to break my fall”. The second verse, sung by Mark, is from the perspective of someone on the ground who is watching the man fall to his death. The lyrical mirroring is phenomenal. The listener is transported from the mind of a man in despair to an observer who is able to make romantic observations amid tragedy. The lyric that has always stuck with me is “I saw it all, I saw it all go down / The shadow grew as he approached the ground / The sunset stretched across this nighttime scene / They turned away as he came near the street below”. The song ends beautifully with a classic Tom and Mark trade-off as they alternate singing the line “Let’s forget this all, move on”. Although the subject matter is dark and the perspective is unsettling, this song feels so, so much bigger than it is. To me, it feels like the reason why this album has stuck with me for two decades. I listen to “I Feel So”, “Watch the World”, and “There Is”, but “Elevator” is the song that makes me feel warm and hopeful as it reminds me to cherish life. Counterintuitive, maybe. My truth, definitely. Check it out below.
Although the album only had two singles, Box Car Racer provided a fresh sound that hadn’t yet materialized in Blink’s music. Subsequent Blink albums would reflect the guitar tones, melodies, sentiments, and styles that Box Car Racer brought to the table. Most notably, it contributed to Blink’s next self-titled album in 2003. The sound is also very prominent in the final Blink album featuring Tom Delonge called Neighborhoods which was released in 2011.
Ultimately, the Box Car Racer is full of great songs that provided an interesting new sound that would later bear fruit in a number of projects. In many ways, I see this album as Tom’s meditations and frustrations come to life. As future releases would prove, these meditations and frustrations were worthy of being heard and explored further within the confines of Blink-182 and other projects.
Tom B. Bearded is a news editor and reviewer for TGEFM. He recently emerged from the scraggly woods near your home.
