Blink-182’s Enema Of The State was a triumph in every conceivable way.
After the three-piece scored their first radio hit in 1997 with break-up anthem ‘Dammit’, the Californians canned their drummer, brought in jazz maestro Travis Barker, and recorded their most pop-friendly set of songs to date.
But rather than toning down the qualities that made their first two records such silly, thrilling listens, they doubled down on the juvenile humour, creating the perfect soundtrack for a generation awash in American Pie-style raunch. The album sold over 15 million copies worldwide, turning them into the pop stars they parodied in the video for ‘All The Small Things’.
Before that song hit MTV, radio and beyond, Blink-182 released another startling clip/song combo, ‘What’s My Age Again?’, which saw them running naked through the streets of LA causing chaos and generally setting themselves up as the antidote to polished pop – despite being quite a polished pop song.
The track started life as ‘Peter Pan Complex’, a song Mark Hoppus wrote to make his friends laugh. I assume this is the way most Blink songs begin. Earlier, filthier lyrics were siphoned out by the time the band demoed the track – alongside a number of other songs which would end up on the album – and the demo is basically a rougher, slightly more downbeat version of the finished track.
While the changes in the demo version were very minor, and more about tightening the arrangement and fixing a few stray lines, the recording itself sounds a lot like the previous album, Dude Ranch, which was as loose and sloppy as Enema Of The State was tight and produced. The main criticism Enema Of The State received from long-time fans was that the recordings were too slick – a fair call, although Blink surely weren’t regretting their decision as the millions rolled in.
During the recording of the Enema demos, the band’s celebrity began to rise. Don Lithgow, the owner of DML Studios, where they bashed through the demos, recalled it “was different than their other sessions – girls hanging around outside, calling their friends on cell phones. All the kids wanted autographs. They’d unlock the doors and let kids into the studio, which most bands would never do.”
Listening to the original demos of the album – which are all over YouTube – one can construct a Sliding Doors type scenario where this album was too sloppy for commercial radio, but embraced by the underground. Blink-182 could have avoided the in-fighting and pressure, recorded a dozen more albums and been seen as a successful career punk band, in the vein of NOFX or Descendents.
Instead they saw their chance, aimed straight for the zeitgeist, and streaked their way to fame.
