Album Name: Dude Ranch
Release Date: June 17th, 1997
Artist: Blink 182
Label: Grilled Cheese
Rating: Ages 15+
Verdict: If Blink-182 is one of the greatest groups of pop-punk superstars to come out of the nineties, then Dude Ranch is their origin story. All of the Blink staples are there: the catchy hooks, whiny tone, and general sense of juvenile hopelessness. It is here that we see those traits grow and develop, and we watch Blink-182 grow into the band they are today.

I’m just going to say this now, from the get-go— This is one of my top five favorite albums. Ever. I think that it’s safe to say that I’ve listened to it at least fifty times so far this year. The funny part is, I wasn’t even a fan of Blink-182 before I listened to it. Sure, I’d dabbled into Enema of the State—another great album—but I was certainly not an avid listener by any means. I am, as you may know, a Green Day fanatic, so Blink was on my to do list. I am SO GLAD that I checked them out!

First track: “Pathetic.” And yes, the song is exactly like it sounds, in the best kind of way. Singers Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge’s whiny, unstable voices lend themselves excellently to a song that complains “I know I’m pathetic, I knew when she said it, a loser, a bum’s what she called me when I drove her home.” It ultimately transforms from a song about getting dissed by your girlfriend to an anthem about accepting your place in life, no matter how, well… pathetic it may be, and not letting anyone pull you down from that, despite how many names they call you.

The next hit off of Dude Ranch is the explosively popular “Dammit,” the catchy, repetitive hook of which many of you would probably recognize. Personally, I think that it isn’t the strongest track off of this album, but, as a single, it can certainly hold its own. Combine that with one of the funniest music videos that I have ever seen, and you have a solid, tight punk classic that is both easy to remember and fun to listen to. You’ll find yourself humming the tune for weeks after.

This next song, despite the profanity of the title, is one of my favorite songs off of this album. The quiet, fast acoustic into leads into an explosion of signature power chords that leap right out of your speakers and into your heart. It is EVERYTHING that I think a Blink-182 song should be: Loud, complainy, whiny, punkish, and completely juvenile. I enjoyed listening to “D*ck Lips,” the true story of singer and guitarist Tom DeLonge’s expulsion from high school due to inebriation on campus and named after an insult that was thrown around the studio during recording, was so fun to listen to that I ran to my guitar to learn to play it. While not one of the band’s most popular songs, it remains in my mind as one of their best.

The best part of “Enthused” was its intro. Usually, Blink likes to cut right to the chase, leaping straight into the vocals and power chords. The great thing about “Enthused”, however, is that it takes its time before just jumping in like that. The band members delve into complicated leads, trippy chord combinations, and long stretches of pure instrumental music that cut right into your soul. Ok, maybe it isn’t that deep (this is a punk rock band, after all) but it’s really enjoyable. After the intro, the verses are, while fun, unremarkable, but the lead in that set them into motion made it all worthwhile.

I group “Untitled” and “Apple Shampoo” together in my head. Not because they sound the same, but because I got into the songs at the same time. “Untitled” is inspired by the jazzy, horn-filled New Orleans punk movement that was being popularized at the time by such bands as Reel Big Fish, Sublime, and Catch-22. The chords are choppy, the words are drawn out, and it’s a great change from the norm that adds a little bit of spice to the record, and sings about a girl who excites a guy by telling him she likes him, but quickly changes her mind. “Apple Shampoo,” named after the favorite type of hair product an ex-girlfriend of one of the band members. It’s actually, despite its odd title, a great song, telling the story of love that just couldn’t be because of the punk rock lifestyle.

After the story of that failed relationship comes a song about the perfect one: “Josie” is an ode to the ultimate girlfriend, another song sung by both Hoppus and DeLonge, is the only song on the album that’s anywhere close to “sweet.” As a lover of Mexican food, my personal favorite line in the song is when Hoppus asserts that “she brings me Mexican food from Sombrero’s, just because…. yeah just because.” Sounds… well, AWESOME.

Those aren’t all of the songs that are included on this totally epic album, but they are my favorites. Listening to this album is a great experience, and each song is a separate story of love or loss, of juvenile antics, of abusive parents, abusive girlfriends, or about nothing in particular. Blink-182 wrote songs that changed the way I see the world, and, if I could only listen to one record for the rest of my life, I think that it would have to be this one. Everything about it screams “awesome” to me, and I would strongly implore you to give it a listen. Don’t be scared away by the cover, or the song names, or the band, or the genre: sometimes the best things come from the most unexpected places!