Blink-182 - Enema of the State
Blink-182
Enema of the State
Release Date: June 1st, 1999
Label: MCA
There is perhaps no band more synonymous with the term “pop-punk” than Blink-182. In that same breath, there is perhaps no album more synonymous with the term “pop-punk” than Enema of the State. Over twenty-five years later, the album is still hailed as the one that started it all. It is the album that made teenagers all over the world pick up a pair of drumsticks, a guitar, or a bass and say, “I want to do that”. It is the album that is responsible for launching three juvenile guys from San Diego - bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus, guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge, and drummer Travis Barker - into stardom, eventually taking them far beyond the stages of the Vans Warped Tour and onto stadium stages around the world. It is a seminal record - and I’m sure that had I written this when the album came out in 1999, the band would be giggling at the fact that I used the word “seminal” because it sounds like “semen”.
Enema of the State is a masterpiece of an album. It takes riffs that are simplistic in nature and makes them larger than life over the course of twelve songs. Every riff is instantly recognizable, whether in the album’s explosive opener “Dumpweed”, lead singles “All The Small Things” and “What’s My Age Again?”, or on more serious moments like “Adam’s Song”. Over the course of thirty-five minutes, Blink-182 elevated songs about break-ups and going away to college into anthems that defined the millennial generation.
One of the key elements to the success of Enema is the production of Jerry Finn, the late producer known for helping define the sound of early-2000s pop-punk music. Finn had a knack for helping punk bands sound larger than life, combining his producing capabilities with unique mixing techniques. Finn could take the most basic guitar riff and turn it into something timeless. He worked with Blink-182 up until his untimely passing in 2008, helping define the sound of a generation through albums like Enema of the State, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, and Untitled.
A majority of the songs on Enema are about relationships and adolescence - “Going Away To College” explores heartbreak, “Dumpweed” delves into frustration, and “What’s My Age Again?” examines stunted maturity. The outlier of Enema of the State is “Adam’s Song”, a heartwrenching track penned by Hoppus about feelings of loneliness and suicidal ideation. Even from a band whose shows are rife with dick jokes that would make even the most ardent of stand-up comedians blush, “Adam’s Song” was a turning point for Blink-182. It showed that even in the middle of the party, they could take a moment to get serious. It was a peek into the future, a sneak preview of the type of sound that the band would explore years later on their Untitled album. All roads lead to the frenetic album closer “Anthem”.
One could easily write about all three of the defining Blink-182 albums - Enema, Pants, Untitled - but there will always be a special place in history for Enema of the State. It is indeed the one that started it all, not just for Blink-182’s mainstream success, but for an entire generation of listeners and countless subgenres.
