Enema of the State
Blink-182 make uncertainty sound remarkably confident on Enema of the State. The guitars arrive cleanly, the choruses are easy to remember, and Travis Barker keeps adding movement underneath songs that could survive on much simpler drums. The people in those songs, meanwhile, have very little under control.
What's My Age Again? is a particularly effective example. Its light opening figure leads into an admission of immaturity that the cheerful delivery cannot quite excuse. Mark Hoppus makes the narrator seem foolish and recognisable at once. The song is funny because the embarrassment feels specific, rather than because the band keep insisting that they are funny.
Going Away to College has a gentler emotional centre. The melody gives romantic anxiety a sweetness that survives the group's rougher jokes. All the Small Things is even more direct, built around a bright guitar rhythm and a chorus that makes no attempt to conceal its pop instincts. Tom DeLonge's sharp vocal gives the clean arrangement enough character.
The album changes mood decisively with Adam's Song. Its account of loneliness and suicidal thoughts asks for a different kind of attention, and the restrained verses allow that seriousness to register. Hoppus avoids making the narrator sound like an abstract issue. The gradual opening of the music gives the hopeful turn a sense of effort rather than an easy solution.
Elsewhere, the band's view of relationships can be narrow and petulant. Some of the jokes are less durable than the songs carrying them. The short running time and clear musical identities help, but they do not make every complaint interesting.
Barker is the useful constant. He gives the fast material a physical lift and makes small transitions feel alive, helping the record move between silliness and vulnerability without grinding to a halt. Enema of the State has obvious limitations in perspective. Its melodic writing and alert performances make those limitations easy to hear, argue with and enjoy in the same sitting.
