Older, possibly wiser and presumably more fully clothed, the torchbearers of the early-'00s pop-punk boom have returned with their knack for tunesmithery intact. The second single from Blink-182's sixth LP, Neighborhoods – the first was the sweeping "Up All Night" – is a melancholy confession about partying too hard: "We'll stagger home after midnight/Sleep on and on in the stairwell/We'll fall apart on the weekend." The midtempo ballad is a bit on the stolid side; it doesn't have the sparkle and fizz of the best Blink. But the sound is comfortingly familiar: the guitar crunch, the tuneful sneer of Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge's vocals, and Travis Barker's whip-cracking snare hits. Aughts nostalgia starts right here.

Listen to "After Midnight":

Related:
• Blink-182 Steal fan footage for 'Up All Night'

“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.