Blink-182

Over the span of their 11-year career, blink-182 resolutely refused to grow up. They were the perpetual high school losers who couldn’t get a date and killed time by trying to outgross each other with fart jokes. But the San Diego snot-core trio has dropped the potty humor and made its most expansive and, gulp, mature (despite its being untitled) CD yet.

Though it would’ve been laughable to throw a term like ”concept album” at these pranksters in past years, this effort — a song cycle about a nose-diving relationship — qualifies. The tip-off: It has an instrumental interlude. None other than the king of mope, the Cure’s Robert Smith, consecrates the recrimination-filled proceedings with a cameo vocal on ”All of This.” Even more fascinating is how the band rejiggers its multiplatinum pop-punk formula with adventurous production choices. The Queen-like vocal harmonies that sew up ”Feeling This,” the wall-of-sound grandeur of ”Obvious,” the melancholy piano, acoustic bass, and brushstroked hip-hop groove of ”I Miss You” — and that’s just the first three songs.

Despite their newfound earnestness, Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus, and Travis Barker seem incapable of pretension. And in a career littered with songs about awkward moments, their latest is a dork classic. A-