Mostly, I love this EP. I don't think the members of blink-182 will be recording any more albums apart from each other. Don't get me wrong, Neighborhoods has its hits, but even the hits seem to be missing a certain level of cohesion. After listening to the new EP for the last few months, I've determined that despite "Boxing Day" and "Pretty Little Girl" it is better than Neighborhoods on the whole. I like the idea behind "Boxing Day" and blink definitely needed a new ballad, considering it had been over 9 years since the release of "I Miss You". But some of Tom's lyrics for this song need to be explained to me, because they come off as extremely corny and nonsensical . "Pretty Little Girl" would have been a solid song, but Yelawolf hi-jacked the track and vomited all over it. I'm very in favor of blink occasionally having rap in their songs, but this doesn't mean they can just take a song that's basically a finished product and throw in any rapper. The remaining three songs on the EP; "Disaster", "Dogs Eating Dogs" and "When I Was Young" are all hits in my opinion. They maintain blink's lyrical edge and sophistication and have a great deal more energy than anything on the last record.
Some purist blink fans may shun me for this, but I decided to rewrite "Boxing Day". I'm still doing some work on it and my singing voice is far from healthy, but here is a clip of "Resolution Day".
My favorite song off of the EP is the title track "Dogs Eating Dogs". It has a little bit of Angels & Airwaves, a little bit of "Feeling This" and a little bit more of "Lycanthrope". I've heard many complaints about how blink's new music just sounds like a remix of their old hits. What I don't think people understand is blink has a very specific style, almost a formula for their songs and it gets more and more difficult to create something new without it having some qualities of another song or sounding too different and outside of their stylistic comfort zone.
First of all, this song is sad. Not so sad that it's off-putting, but very sad nonetheless. Throughout the song, Mark seems to be experiencing the past in the present while Tom sings a chorus filled with cloudy, all-encompassing declarations. I will try my best to interpret these lyrics and hopefully someone will notice some things I've overlooked or offer different interpretations.
Dogs Eating Dogs
Verse 1:
I've got a feeling, I've got a feeling
(I love how this song starts; the line above is like a double pickup to the start of the verse and it's the change of pace that is representative of this album.)
These broken nights and bitter ends
(See. Sad)
We will always starve and devour
(I like songs that begin to explain the title early; a clear reference to "Dogs Eating Dogs".)
Our closest friends, my beautiful friends
Paranoia, my paranoia
(Mark is probably talking about blink's hiatus or perhaps just before, when Tom's side project "Box Car Racer" created distance between him and Mark. Tom said in a personal interview for the AVA documentary film "Start the Machine" that Box Car Racer was not anything against Mark or Travis, but he also said things were never the same between Mark and him since its creation. This very well could be reading way too much into Mark's "paranoia", but I think he's reliving the bitterness of the past or is perhaps worried it will happen again.)
Can't let it go, it never lets me go
What am I feeling, why am I feeling?
(Mark is trying to move on by ignoring his feelings, but he may have reached a point where he no longer feels he is in control.)
Forecast into the freezing cold
(This is perhaps the best evidence for determining whether Mark is just reliving the past or is concerned about the future as well. He could have said "Cast into the freezing cold" and remained ambiguous, but he chose to go with "forecast", which I believe means these feelings of his are a foreshadowing or even a prediction. Being cast out into the cold has a connotation of loneliness, even isolation.)
Prechorus:
Dogs eating dogs, dogs eating dogs, dogs eating dogs
Dogs eating dogs, dogs eating dogs, dogs eating dogs
(Dogs eating dogs is a classic metaphor of the cannibalization of mankind and the selfishness of his nature.)
Chorus:
I'm the last and the first in a very sad set of eyes
(I'm usually pretty good at figuring out Tom's lyrics, which a fan of any of his music know is difficult at times, but these lyrics took some imagination to understand. Perhaps the easiest line to cipher is the first. It is quite common for Tom to use biblical references in his songs and he does again here. "I'm the last and the first" is a paraphrasing of Revelation 22:13, which reads, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last". Mi will likely rebut this, but Tom DeLonge does not believe he is Jesus. He is just aware of how beautifully the Bible is written and likes to use it in his songs.)
To the bone, to the knees, to the factory line
I am numb to the shot, I have a crippling fear of heights
'Cause the fall sounds a lot like a symphony of cries
(The chorus was probably the most difficult portion for me to interpret, because it's almost pure symbolism. I believe Tom is saying he used to, even numb to personal attack, but he's still afraid of the fall. The "symphony of cries" could be referring all the artists who have succumb to the attacks of the music business and have fallen out of relevancy as a result.)
Verse 2:
Your only hope is burning down the chapel
All getting washed out with the tide
(These first two lines are about to be explained by the end of this verse.)
We need to find some middle ground
It's always sex or suicide
(This is about finding balance in life and probably is alluding to those with celebrity status. Mark is saying we shouldn't only live for the highs (sex) and abandon all hope (suicide) when we don't get what we want. But according to the first two lines, the subject of this verse is not listening to him. I'm choosing to take the chapel as a sign of hope and a foundation of the past, which the subject of the verse has burned down and left for ruin, because he or she has chosen a path of despair.)
I think as far as a complete idea, this song is about how our relationships can tear us apart and the crazy thoughts that will go though our heads when we think we're going to lose everything. A bolder and more specific interpretation is this song is a metaphor for how the music business can take over a band and destroy it from the inside out.
-De
(I love how this song starts; the line above is like a double pickup to the start of the verse and it's the change of pace that is representative of this album.)
These broken nights and bitter ends
(See. Sad)
We will always starve and devour
(I like songs that begin to explain the title early; a clear reference to "Dogs Eating Dogs".)
Our closest friends, my beautiful friends
Paranoia, my paranoia
(Mark is probably talking about blink's hiatus or perhaps just before, when Tom's side project "Box Car Racer" created distance between him and Mark. Tom said in a personal interview for the AVA documentary film "Start the Machine" that Box Car Racer was not anything against Mark or Travis, but he also said things were never the same between Mark and him since its creation. This very well could be reading way too much into Mark's "paranoia", but I think he's reliving the bitterness of the past or is perhaps worried it will happen again.)
Can't let it go, it never lets me go
What am I feeling, why am I feeling?
(Mark is trying to move on by ignoring his feelings, but he may have reached a point where he no longer feels he is in control.)
Forecast into the freezing cold
(This is perhaps the best evidence for determining whether Mark is just reliving the past or is concerned about the future as well. He could have said "Cast into the freezing cold" and remained ambiguous, but he chose to go with "forecast", which I believe means these feelings of his are a foreshadowing or even a prediction. Being cast out into the cold has a connotation of loneliness, even isolation.)
Prechorus:
Dogs eating dogs, dogs eating dogs, dogs eating dogs
Dogs eating dogs, dogs eating dogs, dogs eating dogs
(Dogs eating dogs is a classic metaphor of the cannibalization of mankind and the selfishness of his nature.)
Chorus:
I'm the last and the first in a very sad set of eyes
(I'm usually pretty good at figuring out Tom's lyrics, which a fan of any of his music know is difficult at times, but these lyrics took some imagination to understand. Perhaps the easiest line to cipher is the first. It is quite common for Tom to use biblical references in his songs and he does again here. "I'm the last and the first" is a paraphrasing of Revelation 22:13, which reads, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last". Mi will likely rebut this, but Tom DeLonge does not believe he is Jesus. He is just aware of how beautifully the Bible is written and likes to use it in his songs.)
To the bone, to the knees, to the factory line
I am numb to the shot, I have a crippling fear of heights
'Cause the fall sounds a lot like a symphony of cries
(The chorus was probably the most difficult portion for me to interpret, because it's almost pure symbolism. I believe Tom is saying he used to, even numb to personal attack, but he's still afraid of the fall. The "symphony of cries" could be referring all the artists who have succumb to the attacks of the music business and have fallen out of relevancy as a result.)
Verse 2:
Your only hope is burning down the chapel
All getting washed out with the tide
(These first two lines are about to be explained by the end of this verse.)
We need to find some middle ground
It's always sex or suicide
(This is about finding balance in life and probably is alluding to those with celebrity status. Mark is saying we shouldn't only live for the highs (sex) and abandon all hope (suicide) when we don't get what we want. But according to the first two lines, the subject of this verse is not listening to him. I'm choosing to take the chapel as a sign of hope and a foundation of the past, which the subject of the verse has burned down and left for ruin, because he or she has chosen a path of despair.)
I think as far as a complete idea, this song is about how our relationships can tear us apart and the crazy thoughts that will go though our heads when we think we're going to lose everything. A bolder and more specific interpretation is this song is a metaphor for how the music business can take over a band and destroy it from the inside out.
-De
