Erm... it was something that was on the cards for Blink182 for a while. Tom's side project, Boxcar Racer, showed the direction he wanted to move in. Apparently he was going to split Blink if they didn't move in that kind of direction. Although if you actually listen to their albums, you'll find that even on the previous album, there were a few songs more in the current style .... along with obnoxiously crude songs. To be honest, I don't think their new album is radically different, just a natural progression from previous work.... as i'm sure the band themselves are probably a bit maturer too. And what is this new genre? 'whingy PC-piss-artist'...... no 'core' at the end?