Designed to sound like “nursery rhymes on steroids,” Enema of the State instantly propelled Blink-182 from the fringes of the mainstream to the center. It spawned two of the pop-punk generation’s biggest hits, went five-times platinum (though it peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard 200) and transformed guitarist Tom DeLonge, bassist Mark Hoppus and newly recruited drummer Travis Barker into MTV heroes, albeit often heavily blurred ones thanks to their willingness to strip off at any given moment.
Produced by Jerry Finn (Green Day’s Dookie), it also ushered in a wave of bands that combined anthemic hooks with relatable adolescent themes and a refusal to take themselves too seriously – see Sum 41, Wheatus and pretty much every other group who sported camo shorts at the turn of the century. Blink-182 may have been well into adulthood, but as evident by the album’s juvenile play on words and adult actress-adorned cover, their humor, style and general attitude were all proudly stuck in arrested development.
Of course, the Californian trio were never too concerned with such criticisms (“I think it’s so much more punk to piss people off than to conform to all those veganistic views,” Hoppus remarked at the time) or any accusations of selling out. And over time, the record has been reevaluated as both a revolutionary beginners’ guide and a throwback to a sunnier, more carefree era when rock bands weren’t necessarily expected to express a social or political conscience.
For its silver anniversary, here’s a worst-to-best ranking of its 12 odes to never growing up.
