*With Blink 182 reunited, and a new album coming in a few weeks, it feels like the right time to look back at their glory days.*
Whether you liked the wave of pop-punk that ruled the airwaves in the early 00s or not, it's hard to deny the popularity of the movement, or the lasting impact many of those songs had. Whether it's a terrible Good Charlotte song, or Avril Lavigne's usurping of riot-grrl sensibilities, we still hear a lot of that music in the background of our lives. I have talked about how culture seems to have stagnated over the last twenty years, with everything over that time feeling like one long decade, and this is a remnant of that phenomenon. We are never rid of the previous wave of fads, because no new ones have come along to push them aside. The sounds that were popular then are popular now, even if the names that created the scene have moved on to other things.
For all that pop-punk had to offer, no one was bigger in that scene than Blink-182. They pushed things further, created more controversy, and sold more records than any of the other bands who rode the wave to success. If all those others still have careers to this day, it's because Blink-182 made it possible. Without their ability to merge pop melodies with snotty teenage attitude, punk would have remained Green Day and no one else in the eyes of the mainstream.
"Enema Of The State": The breakthrough record, catapulted into mainstream success by controversy and MTV. Featuring a porn star on the cover to go along with the blue wordplay of the title, the album landed itself in trouble early on for not just her presence, but a lawsuit from the Red Cross forcing the label to remove imagery that infringed on their intellectual property... and their reputation. "What's My Age Again?" started the ball rolling, both by being a perfectly crafted pop-punk single, but also being all over MTV with its censored nudist video. While Britney Spears and others were being provocative, Blink took things as far as they could on a censored medium. There was novelty in that approach, as well as some danger, and teenagers all over couldn't get enough of something they probably shouldn't have been seeing.
The record followed up with an even bigger single in "All The Small Things", which lampooned the pop stars of the day in its video, but also the idea of pop music with it's vapid, "Na na na" chorus. In three minutes of utter emptiness, Blink used three chords and some studio magic to spin gold out of nothingness. They would finally prove some worth with "Adam's Song", which for one brief moment showed the band wasn't always thinking with their dicks.
"Take Off Your Pants And Jacket": Following up that record was a huge task, but Blink had the tools at their disposal to do just that. None of the singles would reach the heights of their previous hits, but "Stay Together For The Kids", "The Rock Show", and "First Date" would do well enough to keep the ball rolling. The band leaned harder into their pop side, eschewing the few dirtier and more punk tracks "Enema" still sported, while also leaning harder into their bratty humor. "Happy Holidays, You Bastard" exists for no reason other than to gross-out the audience, while "Fuck a Dog" from one of the bonus editions handles things with all the delicacy you would expect.
Perhaps knowing they were pushing things as far as they could with this approach, or perhaps finally feeling like their teenage years were over as they approached thirty, this record would be the end of an era for the band, and for the entire pop-punk scene. Soon after, the people who were telling dirty jokes would be trying to tackle serious social issues. That would come with varying degrees of success, perhaps a limitation of their abilities, or perhaps the audience had been conditioned to think of them as nothing but jokes.
Putting the albums head-to-head, we face the question that has long plagued the analytic among us; is consistency more important than highlights? "Enema", without doubt, has the band's greatest songs. Nothing on "Take Off Your Pants And Jacket" can match the rough-around-the-edges glee of "What's My Age Again?", or the infectious stupidity of "All The Small Things". Everything Blink will ever be remembered for can be summed up by "Enema". If that record is the only thing you ever hear, you don't need to know anything more of the Blink story.
That being said, "Take Off Your Pants And Jacket" is the more consistent album. "Enema" has the highlights, but it also has a few lulls where the band is either fighting the polished approach the singles get, or they can't keep up the energy long enough to fill out the record. The second half of that record, in particular, loses steam and fails to deliver the pop in pop-punk. "Jacket" has the band fully bought into their success, not wasting a single track. While "Enema" is a couple of singles in the midst of a punk record, "Jacket" is a pop record where every song feels like it was written with the potential of being a single.
As good as "First Date" and "The Rock Show" are, "Online Songs" and "Story Of A Lonely Guy" could just have easily taken their place. Even cruder tracks like "Shut Up" have the sort of hooks that could have been on the radio, if the lyrics weren't so immature. So while "Enema" has the band's greatest hits, "Jacket" feels like it could have been a greatest hits album.
Looking at things from that perspective, I am faced with the decision between whether it is more essential to have three great songs or a dozen almost great ones. From a legacy standpoint, "Enema" is clearly the record to favor. Nothing can compare with those singles, and pop-punk and my memories would feel incomplete without them. From an enjoyment standpoint, "Jacket" is the record to favor. To sit down and listen through, there is simply no comparison from start to finish. This all comes down to where the fulcrum sits under the see-saw, and if we're asking which album is the better one, I think it's not as obvious as I just made it. While "Jacket" is the easier record to enjoy start to finish, and is probably the 'better' one, I find myself gravitating toward "Enema" more often, and I can't deny that.
Winner: "Enema Of The State"
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