The new Blink-182 album is finished—again.

Back in February, Travis Barker revealed that the band had scrapped 16 completed songs for their comeback album. That may seem like a colossal waste of time and effort, but consider that Green Day did the same thing before dropping American Idiot, now one of the most celebrated alternative rock records of all-time.

In the most recent incarnation of the forthcoming album—which Barker has called the band’s “best work in a decade”—Blink wrote and recorded relentlessly, spending 15-20 hour days in the studio with producer John Feldmann and Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba. Skiba, formerly just a touring and session member, is now part of the band’s songwriting process for the first time.

“It was great to have someone who wants to be in the studio all the time with us. It has been amazing,” Barker explained of Skiba to Punkvideosrock.com’s Robert Herrera. “I think the days of making great records, at least with Blink, the proof has been shown that it’s great when we’re all in the studio together.”

There’s no release date for the record, and Barker wouldn’t reveal when the first single will be released, but he did confirm that the album is finished. “The album’s done; I’ll be honest with everybody. It’s just a matter of picking what 12 to 14 songs are going to be on the album. I think we wrote 26 or 27? So everyone right now is really pushing for their favorites.”

The selected tracks will be compiled into Blink-182’s first record since Neighborhoods in 2011, and only their second since 2003. Hopefully Barker and Co.’s hard work is evident in the music—who wouldn’t welcome a Blink resurgence? Let us know what your expectations are in the comments.

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HT: Alternative Press

IMAGE: Blink-182/ Jeff Kravitz