Few bands captured the Zeitgeist like blink-182 did during their time as the irreverent kings of Warped Tour-era pop punk in the late '90s and early 2000s. Like a nasally, SoCal, three-headed hydra, the band, featuring singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge, singer/bassist Mark Hoppus, and drummer Travis Barker, broke boundaries, gatecrashing MTV's TRL with their snotty, tongue-in-cheek music videos and anthems about falling in love at rock shows, making prank calls, and generally being stupid and having fun. Of course, there were darker times ahead, with DeLonge quitting the band and then returning and quitting again. Barker survived a 2008 plane crash that left him with multiple injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder. Finally, in 2021, Hoppus successfully underwent chemotherapy to treat a rare form of lymphoma, a diagnosis that ultimately brought the trio back together, looking to heal old wounds and rekindle lost friendships. It's that feeling of gripping onto the past right before it slips away that the reunited blink-182 capture on their ninth studio album (or tenth, depending on if you count their initial demo), 2023's One More Time.... Produced by Barker, the album is their first to feature DeLonge since 2011's Neighborhoods. While the albums the group made with Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba (2016's California and 2019's Nine) were solidly crafted, they always felt like something was missing. That something was DeLonge's goofy sincerity and hyper-resonant croon, two key elements of the group's classic sound, along with their crisp guitar, bass, and drum riffs that are front and center throughout all of One More Time.... Cuts like "Dance with Me," "Bad News," and "Fell in Love" are classic blink-anthems that wouldn't sound out of place on Enema of the State or Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. Yet, there are wounds here, and the band dig deep into them, working through the mess of bad breakup on "More Than You Know" and revealing the stark truth about taking someone's presence in your life for granted on "You Don't Know What You've Got," the latter of which finds their voices intertwined in a throaty harmony. There's certainly the sense that blink-182 are working through the pain of the past two decades on One More Time..., including the death of close friends, divorces, and their own interpersonal drama. It's a vibe of carpe diem that they explicitly underline on the title track, singing "I know that next time ain't always gonna happen/I gotta say, 'I love you' while we're here." One More Time... plays like a love letter, both to fans who stuck with them and to each other -- a letter that doesn't so much ask for forgiveness as offer it willingly, passionately, and without conditions.© Matt Collar /TiVo

If the title Enema of the State didn't give it away, it should be clear from songs like "Dumpweed," "What's My Age Again?," and "Dysentery Gary" that moving to a major label isn't a sign of maturity for blink-182. "Dammit (Growing Up)," the first single from their third album, Dude Ranch, brought them a wider audience and the attention of major labels, which was just too tempting to resist. They signed with MCA, but the only sign that Enema of the State is a major-label effort is the somewhat cleaner production and the fact that they could afford porn superstar Janine -- all decked out as (surprise!) an enema nurse -- for the album cover. Of course, the lovely Janine is as much an indication as "Going Away to College," a catchy little number that pretty much repeats the narrative of "Dammit": blink-182 is not growing up, no way, no how, nowhere. And that's fine, because few of their peers are quite as blissfully stupid and effortlessly catchy as them. Sure, they might not show the emotional depth of Green Day, but they have good tunes and deliver them in a speedy, punchy fashion. Enema of the State isn't going to change anyone's life -- unless it's the first time a 13-year-old boy has seen Janine -- and it will likely irritate old codgers, but it's a fun record that's better than the average neo-punk release.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

There comes a time in every punk's life where he or she has to grow up, or at least acknowledge that maturity is just around the corner. blink-182 put it off for as long as they could, but ten years into their career and two albums after their big breakthrough, 1999's Enema of the State, they decided to make a stab at being grown-ups for their eponymous sixth studio album. As with many self-titled albums, the trio uses this as an attempt to redefine itself, and they have considerably expanded both their sonic template and lyrical outlook on blink-182. They're still rooted in punk-pop, but even songs that stretch no further than that sound are a little darker, a little restless, reflecting the overall mood of the record. In shorthand, this is the record where blink-182 delve into post-punk, opting for some appealingly sullen moodiness, off-kilter hooks, lots of sonic textures, and even a duet with the Cure's Robert Smith. Since the trio is an inherently catchy group, this is a far cry from neo-post-punk groups like Interpol or even the dynamically hooky Hot Hot Heat, but there is a greater variety of sounds on blink-182 than on any of the trio's other albums, and the songwriting is similarly adventurous, alternating punchy, impassioned punk-pop with weirder, atmospheric pieces like "Down" and "I'm Lost Without You." If nothing on the album has the immediate impact of "All the Small Things" -- though the opener, "Feeling This," comes close -- and if, on the whole, blink-182 isn't as bracing or visceral as Dude Ranch or Enema, so be it: there's more to explore on this album than any of their other records. It's an unexpected and welcome maturation from a band that just an album ago seemed permanently stuck in juvenilia.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Few bands captured the Zeitgeist like blink-182 did during their time as the irreverent kings of Warped Tour-era pop punk in the late '90s and early 2000s. Like a nasally, SoCal, three-headed hydra, the band, featuring singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge, singer/bassist Mark Hoppus, and drummer Travis Barker, broke boundaries, gatecrashing MTV's TRL with their snotty, tongue-in-cheek music videos and anthems about falling in love at rock shows, making prank calls, and generally being stupid and having fun. Of course, there were darker times ahead, with DeLonge quitting the band and then returning and quitting again. Barker survived a 2008 plane crash that left him with multiple injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder. Finally, in 2021, Hoppus successfully underwent chemotherapy to treat a rare form of lymphoma, a diagnosis that ultimately brought the trio back together, looking to heal old wounds and rekindle lost friendships. It's that feeling of gripping onto the past right before it slips away that the reunited blink-182 capture on their ninth studio album (or tenth, depending on if you count their initial demo), 2023's One More Time.... Produced by Barker, the album is their first to feature DeLonge since 2011's Neighborhoods. While the albums the group made with Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba (2016's California and 2019's Nine) were solidly crafted, they always felt like something was missing. That something was DeLonge's goofy sincerity and hyper-resonant croon, two key elements of the group's classic sound, along with their crisp guitar, bass, and drum riffs that are front and center throughout all of One More Time.... Cuts like "Dance with Me," "Bad News," and "Fell in Love" are classic blink-anthems that wouldn't sound out of place on Enema of the State or Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. Yet, there are wounds here, and the band dig deep into them, working through the mess of bad breakup on "More Than You Know" and revealing the stark truth about taking someone's presence in your life for granted on "You Don't Know What You've Got," the latter of which finds their voices intertwined in a throaty harmony. There's certainly the sense that blink-182 are working through the pain of the past two decades on One More Time..., including the death of close friends, divorces, and their own interpersonal drama. It's a vibe of carpe diem that they explicitly underline on the title track, singing "I know that next time ain't always gonna happen/I gotta say, 'I love you' while we're here." One More Time... plays like a love letter, both to fans who stuck with them and to each other -- a letter that doesn't so much ask for forgiveness as offer it willingly, passionately, and without conditions.© Matt Collar /TiVo

Not too much has changed since we last left blink-182. You might hear the same snap, crackle, and pop that the trio has prided themselves on for almost ten years. There's even the continual cabbage-patch screech of Tom Delonge and support for rampant teen angst. But five albums later, these San Diego natives grab their rosy-cheek punkadelics and add a bit more of a flamboyant, passionate maturation on Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. When Enema of the State leaped onto the charts in 1999, the lyrical direction was 90 percent party-boy mentality, leaving little room for traces of a growth spurt. And while we're still feeling the continual back-drip of tracks from Enema, the fresh plethora of tunes from these rambunctious Toys-R-Us rockers have more purpose than ever. With a fight-for-your-right joviality that's often irresistible, songs like "Anthem Part 2" and "Stay Together for the Kids" house a indomitable school-kid voice where a surging vapor of knockout speed chords meet wrecking-ball percussion. The meanings are bucketed and spilled, with lines like "If we're f*cked up/You're to blame" ("Anthem Part 2"). And forget about escaping lyrics such as, "I'll never talk to you again/Unless your dad 'ill suck me off," which stems from the hilarious, almost brilliant 42-second clash called "Happy Holidays, You Bastard." "First Date" and "Roller Coaster" are only a couple of their tunes that act as therapy for post-pubescent dilemma, also present on previous efforts like Enema and Dude Ranch. Each song about the rotten girlfriend or unhip parent speaks loud and often to the 2000 MTV generation. Nevertheless, the dumped-in-the-amusement-park tone and lyrical progression are sharp, if not entertaining. The band's stint on the Vans Warped Tour, with veteran punksters such as Pennywise and Rancid, has become a supreme outlet for blink-182. Take Off Your Pants is one of their finest works to date, with almost every track sporting a commanding articulation and new-school punk sounds. They've definitely put a big-time notch in the win column.© Darren Ratner /TiVo

On their third album, Dude Ranch, blink-182 follow in the same path as their first two, turning out 15 tracks of juvenile, adrenaline-fueled punk-pop. Some listeners will find their potty humor ("Dick Lips") somewhat irritating, but the group has written some surprisingly catchy hooks, which might win over skeptics. The songwriting is still a little uneven, but overall, Dude Ranch is an improvement over their first album, Cheshire Cat.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

First rule of greatest-hits albums: start things off with a bang, not a song that takes about a minute to get off the ground, and about 80 seconds before the vocals kick in. "Carousel" may be a chronologically accurate way to begin blink-182's Greatest Hits, yet it gets things off to a slow start -- but then again, blink-182 hardly sped out of the gate themselves. It took them a long time to get up to speed -- it wasn't until their third album, 1997's Dude Ranch, that they developed a flair for sugary pop hooks, as evidenced by that album's "Dammit," not just their first big hit, but their first memorable song. It was enough to buy them a ticket to the big leagues and their next album, 1999's Enema of the State, turned into a blockbuster, thanks to the crossover Top Ten hit "All the Small Things," an incessantly catchy, irresistible slice of bubblegum-pop that sounded at ease sandwiched between *NSYNC and Britney Spears on Y2K radio. This, as Greatest Hits proves, was both blink-182's blessing and curse: they had the ability to turn out some great pop singles, but when they missed the mark, they sounded lightweight and disposable. This wasn't just true of their defiantly stupid party songs, of which there were many; even such brooding, angst-ridden teenage melodramas as "Adam's Song" seem a little lightweight and transient. Of course, the band was helped neither by its crystal-clear, super-slick production -- which was the antithesis of punk -- or by the thin, whiny edge of vocalists Mark Hoppus and Tom Delonge -- which tended to make even serious themes seem like frivolous adolescent concerns. Over the long run, these two factors tend to undercut whatever snotty charms blink-182 may have had, particularly because their writing tended to be hit or miss, to the extent that even this Greatest Hits is uneven. It may have all their best songs -- "Dammit" and "All the Small Things" in particular, plus "Josie," "What's My Age Again?," "The Rock Show," and "Stay Together for the Kids" -- but at 17 songs, including the previously unreleased "Not Now" and a cover of the Only Ones' "Another Girl Another Planet" taken from the MTV reality series starring drummer Travis Barker and his Playmate wife, this runs a little long. It may have all their charting singles, but its generous length tends to highlight blink-182's weaknesses instead of their strengths. That said, the group did set the standard for pop-punk's commercialization at the turn of the millennium, and not only were they better than the sound-alikes that followed, they did have some good tunes, all of which are best heard on this intermittently entertaining collection.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Few bands captured the Zeitgeist like blink-182 did during their time as the irreverent kings of Warped Tour-era pop punk in the late '90s and early 2000s. Like a nasally, SoCal, three-headed hydra, the band, featuring singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge, singer/bassist Mark Hoppus, and drummer Travis Barker, broke boundaries, gatecrashing MTV's TRL with their snotty, tongue-in-cheek music videos and anthems about falling in love at rock shows, making prank calls, and generally being stupid and having fun. Of course, there were darker times ahead, with DeLonge quitting the band and then returning and quitting again. Barker survived a 2008 plane crash that left him with multiple injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder. Finally, in 2021, Hoppus successfully underwent chemotherapy to treat a rare form of lymphoma, a diagnosis that ultimately brought the trio back together, looking to heal old wounds and rekindle lost friendships. It's that feeling of gripping onto the past right before it slips away that the reunited blink-182 capture on their ninth studio album (or tenth, depending on if you count their initial demo), 2023's One More Time.... Produced by Barker, the album is their first to feature DeLonge since 2011's Neighborhoods. While the albums the group made with Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba (2016's California and 2019's Nine) were solidly crafted, they always felt like something was missing. That something was DeLonge's goofy sincerity and hyper-resonant croon, two key elements of the group's classic sound, along with their crisp guitar, bass, and drum riffs that are front and center throughout all of One More Time.... Cuts like "Dance with Me," "Bad News," and "Fell in Love" are classic blink-anthems that wouldn't sound out of place on Enema of the State or Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. Yet, there are wounds here, and the band dig deep into them, working through the mess of bad breakup on "More Than You Know" and revealing the stark truth about taking someone's presence in your life for granted on "You Don't Know What You've Got," the latter of which finds their voices intertwined in a throaty harmony. There's certainly the sense that blink-182 are working through the pain of the past two decades on One More Time..., including the death of close friends, divorces, and their own interpersonal drama. It's a vibe of carpe diem that they explicitly underline on the title track, singing "I know that next time ain't always gonna happen/I gotta say, 'I love you' while we're here." One More Time... plays like a love letter, both to fans who stuck with them and to each other -- a letter that doesn't so much ask for forgiveness as offer it willingly, passionately, and without conditions.© Matt Collar /TiVo

After a stretch of uncertainty and stagnation, blink-182 returned with their seventh LP, California, their best in 15 years. The debut from "blink v3.0" features new guitarist Matt Skiba, the Alkaline Trio frontman who replaced founding member Tom DeLonge in 2015. Skiba joins Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker on an album that is both a return to form and an admirable maturation of the band's classic pop-punk sound. Whereas 2003's self-titled album had its moments, the 2011 follow-up Neighborhoods was an uninspired, stale comeback from a trio that had lost its heart and sense of fun. In the end, they sounded like imitations of younger bands they helped inspire. With California, blink-182 are free from the drama, reinjecting much-needed vitality and spirit back into the catalog. Fortunately, this is not merely blink-meets-Alkaline. Skiba has assimilated, while introducing new angles to the longtime Hoppus-Barker relationship with deeper vocals and bolder guitar. Those trademark blink riffs and "na-na-na"s remain intact ("Sober"), which should please the faithful. While the loss of DeLonge's nasally whine is a departure -- for better or worse -- the harmonies remain tight between Hoppus and Skiba ("Rabbit Hole," "Los Angeles"). Producer and Goldfinger frontman John Feldmann -- the first outside man since longtime producer Jerry Finn passed in 2008 -- received songwriting credit on every track and captured blink's essence and tightened their focus. Lead single "Bored to Death" kicked off the new era with a reminder of blink's appeal: sunny harmonies, a catchy melody, and a massive singalong chorus. The pogo-ing "She's Out of Her Mind" is "The Rock Show" redux, and "The Only Thing That Matters" is a raucous throwback for the fans who miss the Raynor-era. And yet, while these are all nods to the past, California doesn't wallow in by-the-numbers nostalgia. It's not a desperate grasp at youth and faded glory, but rather a reflective look back and an expert execution of what they do best. In addition to those quintessential blink hallmarks, there are many big moments on California conceived with outside collaborators. Faint turntable scratching courtesy of DJ Spider can be heard on "Sober," an arena-ready anthem co-written by Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump. David Hodges (Evanescence, Avril Lavigne) contributes to a trio of tracks in the album's mid-section, including another big tune, the pounding "Kings of the Weekend." Boys Like Girls' Martin Johnson assists on the title track, a bittersweet love letter to their home state. Whether it's DeLonge's absence or an actual maturation, there's something less bratty and sophomoric about California. For the guys who once ran around naked for a video and featured a porn star on an album cover, this is actually a welcome shift, evidence of natural development and an eye to the future. Even with the inclusion of a pair of short, juvenile ditties, blink-182 can't fool anyone. The guys have grown up and the results are as catchy and enjoyable as anything they ever did in their youthful heyday.© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo