‘Neighborhoods’ reveals a grown-up side to blink-182

It’s been eight years since their last studio album, and five years since they announced an indefinite hiatus, and after too much drama and a near-fatal plane crash later, blink-182 is back with a new album.

“Neighborhoods” will be released Tuesday and it has rekindled a herd of old blink fans that rocked out to the then-active band during puberty.

The album overall still has a punkish-edge but with evidence that the members have grown up and out of their initial potty humor lyrics and hard, fast punk instrumentals that was apparent in their earlier albums such as “Dude Ranch” or “Take Off Your Pants And Shirt.”

Some tracks — such as their single, “Up All Night,” “Snake Charmer,” “This Is Home” and “Love is Dangerous” —have an expermental style similar to Angels and Airwaves, a band that blink-182 vocalist and guitarist Tom DeLonge formed after the split of blink-182 in 2005.

Part of it is due to the fact that DeLonge sings the melody of those songs instead of Mark Hoppus, who is the bassist and the other vocalist of blink-182. DeLonge has higher (sometimes described as “whiney”) style vocals, while Hoppus has a deep voice, which when harmonized sounds excellent.

In fact, the whole album has a little too much Angels and Airwaves vibe, which can best be described as space rock.

Some songs, however, have a slight reminiscence of their older style. “Native” is just that, with both DeLonge and Hoppus singing melody with fast-paced punk instrumentals. “Heart’s All Gone” is also of a similar style, except DeLonge only sings backup to Hoppus, which they should do more often.

It may be important to note that the reunion of the band was initiated and catalyzed after blink-182 drummer Travis Barker was aboard a plane that crashed in 2008. He was one of few survivors and sustained near-fatal injuries with second and third degree burns.

This brought the trio together after a four-year stalemate between DeLonge and the other two.

Bottom line is, the longevity of the band is reflected in the maturing content of the music. Their last album, self-titled “blink-182,” released eight years ago, broke out some of their more laid back music and mature content with lyrics talking about the hardships of adult-life and becoming fathers.

And this album is no different. It even takes another step further.

Although it is definitely not the best that blink-182 has released, it’s hard to not appreciate that they did not completely flop on their comeback. Yes, the style has changed quite a bit, but that was already pretty apparent an album before. It’s different, but bearable. Even enjoyable.

Most people seem to hate change, but it helps to appreciate blink-182’s evolution because the original fans have grown up as well.

While much of the fan base scoffed at the idea of ever being that old (“No one likes you when you’re 23 . . . .” from their song What’s My Age Again?), both sides have since grown to realize that yes, they are that old now.