Best Tracks: I Feel So, There Is, Watch The World, Letters To God
A year ago, while on the road, Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker of blink 182 would fool around and write songs about the apocalypse and other such things thinking it wouldn't go anywhere. A year later they've added two members of another punk group and given themselves the name Box Car Racer (An old band that Travis used to be a part of in high school.) The point of the band according to Tom is to pay tribute to all of the other punk bands that paved the way for punk music today. But, chances are, if you weren't told that you wouldn't have known.
Even though BCR seem to be going a completely different path than blink 182 with "I Feel So" with a much harder sound they end up going a few steps back with "Watch The World", "All Systems Go" and "And I" which all sound like the same polished blink tunes with different names. That's not to say that the lyrics aren't good because the most surprising thing about the album is it contains some of the deepest lyrics Tom has ever written and are a step above anything he did for "Take Off Your Pants And Jacket". His quest for answers about death in "Letters To God" and his ode to love in "There Is" both show a large amount of emotion and introspection that you probably won't come across with any other pop-punk band.
Even with a acoustic/sonic rush like "Letters To God" or a strange mixture of sounds like "Instrumental", Box Car Racer still can't shake off the blink 182 sound which isn't necessarily bad but if they want to consider themselves a tribute to bands like Fugazi and The Ramones then they might want to stick with a low-fi sound like "My First Punk Song" and then I think BCR would fully reach the potential that they've hinted at with this debut.
