Dude Ranch

BLINK-182 | CHAPTER TWO

This album slaps! Much like what I wanna do to that bull’s voluptuous sack!

After the semi-buzz the SoCal trio’s debut LP acquired after some slight rotation and heavy touring, they’d be swooped up from indie label Cargo Music by big league MCA. The signing of the boys to a major could be partially attributed to the indie buzz around them, but could also be attributed to the fact that since Cheshire Cat in 95’ Skate Punk and Pop Punk had somewhat blown up. Recordings by Green Day and The Offspring were going multi platinum, and labels were looking for more fresh faces that were of a similar branch.

It’s pretty clear that signing with MCA (or any major for that matter) was the best decision they could’ve made as immediately these songs pop. I’m aware that this (and all of their records up until 03’s Untitled) was recorded pretty quickly but these songs feel far more developed and well written. Cheshire Cat had to be recorded incredibly fast and it’s pretty apparent. In the five weeks of recording this record took it’s just far more memorable and refined. There’s no songs that are bad on purpose and our dual singers Mark and Tom sound more confident and spotlight ready. Granted, Tom doesn’t sound marvelously different but Mark definitely showed the most improvement in those two years.

It’s still fairly juvenile lyrically, even on more serious songs, but it’s far more tolerable here and even fun. A song like Degenerate works well because A) it’s fun and B) it’s charming. When you can audibly hear Tom cracking up at a certain point in this song you can feel the palpable studio silliness. A song like the Hoppus-lead Dammit is a massive step-up in the lyrics department from anything on their last album, going over the simple topic of moving on from a breakup and doing it in a fairly mature way. When this album is being a little simplistic it still has this weird time-capsule specific vibe to it. Like these songs feel like they can only be written by Tom and Mark. Speaking of serious, the goofy vibe isn’t lost despite an abundance of less goofy songs. Take the skits in between some songs for example. In some of them they just sound cheap and stupid, but the one on Untitled with Hoppus reassuring a scared and running girl that he’s STD-free always gives me a chuckle.

To get more back into the production side of things, this album is significantly better produced. There’s no time constraints due to money or rushing despite the relatively quick month-and-some production time. The record just simply has color and does the fun bouncy and stupid vibe of Blink justice. Cheshire had a problem with being very bland and muddy sounding due to how replaceably quick it was made, but there’s none of that here. Maybe it can start to sound similar here and there (just a pop punk/skate punk problem on its own) but it’s never not fun or lacking in hooks and riffs that make you wanna jump. Mark’s bass is also a lot more notable here, applying that well needed layer to these already solid tunes. The original drummer of the band, Scott Raynor, would soon leave after this record due to alcoholism but I find him to be solid and to fit more with that 90’s Skate Punk style.

Overall a very solid record, and I find it pretty hard to find a bad song of the bunch. Just a really fun and tightly knit bunch of bangers. Even the Star Wars song A New Hope is great, even as someone who’s never seen a SW film and thinks a goofy topic like this would normally crash in terms of a song. This just fits right in with the losery dorky vibe of the rest of the album so I have no qualms. I also think changing the band name from Blink to Blink-182 was a great idea. Thanks Blink from Ireland!

Favorite Tracks: All!

Okay Tracks: None!

Least Favorite Tracks: None!