It’s been two decades since the natural artistic glory of their fourth LP, ‘Untitled.’ There’s a remnant of harmony amongst the fans that there’s something unreal about Blink-182.
Maybe the impression made by the superficial facade of their early years is that they’ve been mistaken for positive numbskullery.
Perhaps it’s their numerous side-projects, start-stop output, and the mix-up of their line-up that have flawed their enormous sense as pop-punk icons in fans’ minds.
The change in their line-up included the replacement of Scott Raynor, the band’s original drummer, with the formidable Travis Barker. While the vocalist and guitarist Tom DeLonge was swapped out for Matt Skiba, the main-man of the ‘Alkaline Trio.’
In all of their eight albums, you’ll find an artistic growth and change made over three decades that others in the music industry cannot match.
With all the shift in tones, both philosophically and sonically, fans from different eras will surely have their say about which songs are deserving of a spot on a list like this.
We’ll provide a list of the best Blink-182 songs that were a milestone on the band’s career path.
Best Blink-182 Songs:
1. Down
Down was the third single from the LP, Untitled, and was somewhat a straightforward effort to grow in music.
The efficiency of their music has just evolved with time. A scene where a person begs another person to stay as the rain pours outside; shows the raw emotion of ultimate loss and bargaining.
The band also featured vocals from all the members, and you can hear Barker’s whispers.
The song was assisted by a guitar riff and featured Blink-182’s unashamed chorus.
Down is a song that seems overlooked in recent times, but it deserves to be remembered.
The video is another classic. It features Terry Crews as a cop chasing over 100 former gang members along the LA River.
2. Mutt
Mutt proved to be an essential track in Blink-182’s breakthrough. The song is a part of the album ‘Enema Of The State,’ released in 1999.
It was the first song without Scott Raynor and contributed to American Pie’s soundtrack, a seminal teen sex comedy.
The band also appeared in the movie. They were noticed by the producer Jerry Finn, who was later invited and contributed a lot to ‘Enema Of The State.’
It was fixated on lovers whose appeal implied to know no standards. It became the stronghold for the band’s off-color humor.
‘She smokes a dozen, and he doesn’t seem to notice the smell/ he took the seat off his bike because the way it felt/ he wants to bone, this I know, she is ready to blow.’
These are the song’s lyrics, and it might be hard to believe that the lyrics of the song felt sweet back then.
The band had terrific chemistry in the music studio, and without any of them, Enema Of The State would have been different.
3. Going Away To College
‘Going Away To College’ is another song from the album ‘Enema Of The State.’ It contributed to the rich origin of teen culture in the late 90s and early ‘00s. Blink-182 thoroughly implanted themselves as a part of the zeitgeist.
As the story goes, Mark was watching the teen comedy ‘Can’t Hardly Wait’ on Valentine’s Day in 1999. He found himself writing about the excitement and sadness of the indefinite future that awaits the kids at the end of school.
‘I haven’t been this scared in a long time, and I’m so unprepared, so here’s your valentine.’
The lyrics were written on a napkin. The song surprisingly captures the emotions of exhilaration and panic as opportunity and time seem to slip away from us, sending us into whatever awaits in the future.
4. Carousel
Carousel is considered the big bang for the band. The track goes back to 1992, when Tom and Mark met for the first time. They both selected the song as their first jam; they connected.
The track starts with a bassline before transitioning into its iconic high tempo. It roars with anticipation of existential anxiety fixed in grunge as the proto-pop-punk scene from which it developed.
The lyrics ‘Here I am standing on my own’ reflect stunning adolescent clarity and carry adult weight.
In 1994, the song first appeared in Buddha demo, and later it was released in the debut LP, Carousel.
The song has surely proven to be a fan favorite for a long time.
5. Ghost On The Dance Floor
The song arrived four years before Tom’s exit from the band and six years after the band’s hiatus.
The sixth LP Neighborhoods was released in 2011, and it has always felt like an underrated deviation in their back-catalog.
There is no deficit of memorable tracks in the LP, with the likes of Heart’s All Gone, Even If She Falls, and Natives being worth your time. The favorite amongst the album is Ghost On The Dance Floor.
Barker comes up with an outstanding percussive performance which laid the basis for one of Blink 182’s best riffs.
The atmosphere and eerie imagery reflect Mark’s love of various bands like Oingo Boingo and Depeche Mode.
Ghost On The Dance Floor combines all the members’ influences with pop-punk and elegant hip-hop style.
6. Dammit
Dammit is a standout track from the LP Dude Ranch, which played a significant role in kick-starting Blink 182’s career. Mark wrote it impromptu while they were still in their youth and had yet to taste success.
The song tells about crossing paths with a former lover after meeting a new person. As a prism through it, they release their anxieties about moving on and getting older.
The hit song rattles off at high tempo, with no limitation of youthful fire and airy six-strings. It helped build the trademark sound of Blink-182 and was their breakthrough hit.
After 25 years since its release, the song’s passion has only increased to estimate the futility and frustration of the human experience and come to terms with the romantic entanglement.
7. The Rock Show
The Rock Show is a track from Blink-182’s fourth album, ‘Take Off Your Pants And Jacket.’
The song was a triumph. It introduced a subtle matured pop-punk and crystallized finding romance at a show into one hundred seventy-one seconds that the fans have forever spun since.
They were inspired by the early experiences they got from the rock clubs around Southern California and were influenced by famous punk bands like Screeching Weasel, Ramones, and Descendents.
The track had purity and rawness in wanting to live in the moment. It spoke to the older audience while the teenagers enjoyed the music.
Tom had some apprehension about singing songs like this in his late forties, but the band still made it work one way or another.
Their music video featured themselves spending a lot of money on the silliest stuff they could think of.
8. Stockholm Syndrome
A multitude of factors led to the development of tone in the two years between ‘Take Off Your Pants And Jacket’ and the 2003’s banger release ‘Untitled.’
On a worldwide scale, the scene of September 11, 2001, had woke up the sense of self-approved suburban safety that had been in the foundation for Blink-182’s schtick for a long time.
Like many other punk bands, they were also captivated by more prominent subjects. America’s merciless falter influenced them towards the second Gulf War.
The song title, ‘Stockholm Syndrome,’ refers to the captive getting mesmerized and dependent on their imprisoner. But the lyrics, ‘I’m sick with apprehension/I’m crippled from exhaustion’ deal with the author’s perception of paranoia.
The song on the record is anticipated powerfully by the interlude. It features Joanne Whalley reading a letter that Mark’s grandfather wrote to his grandmother during World War II.
9. I Miss You
The second single, I Miss You from Blink-182’s Untitled Album, was released in 2003.
For teenagers who were used to listening to the band’s unapologetic puerility and signature of fast-paced pop-punk, the song felt like a betrayal rather than a change to them.
The song was written by Tom and Mark, which showcased the songwriters’ growth since the ‘All The Small Things’ days.
The acoustic guitar, orchestration of piano, and strings were matched by songwriting. It moved from the sugar rush of the infatuation of the teenagers to the gradual burn of adult relationships which proved the band’s maximum age had finally come.
Swerving into the emo area, then moving on to a soundscape that remains unique. The elements of post-punk and hip hop combined in the layered darkness, and it still feels like one of their most artistic and emotional moments.
10. Adam’s Song
Adam’s song is a track from the album ‘Enema Of The State’ and gives a delicate touch of melancholia.
It’s based on the smooth passage of cheerful youth that undercuts the most immature and obscene moments on Blink-182’s breakthrough.
The song shifts into a sharp focus inspired by Mark’s sadness that he felt when he received a note left by a young man who had taken his own life.
The incident inspired the band to face the dark realities of suicide and depression. It felt relatable and contrasted to their otherwise cheerful attitudes.
Pleading to Nirvana’s Come As You Are, the song was a powerful indication of their deeper songwriting tendencies and soulful capabilities.
A controversy broke out when a student who lost a friend hung himself after listening to the song on repeat. The band stressed that the song was not about suicide, but they still were rattled.
11. What’s My Age Again?
The song ‘What’s My Age Again?’ is another track from the album ‘Enema Of The State’ that’s featured on this list.
It found the band to bravely face the question of whether they might be getting too old for naive stuff.
For many people, the idea of men who are in their late twenties writing about the flutters of first romance and continuing to fixate on high school rowdiness seemed a little bit strange.
All of the people missed the point, though, and they don’t truly appreciate and understand the low-key beauty, tragedy, and comedy of teenage years until they leave it behind.
The fans who’ve grown up with their music have come to the understanding that revisiting the past is poignant and highly satisfying.
The music video is conceivably the most iconic in pop-punk and has been parodied by the band themselves, one in Man Overboard and the other in She’s Out Of Her Mind.
12. Feeling This
Feeling This is considered the apex of Blink-182.
According to Mark, the crowned lead single and opening track from the Untitled Album has been his favorite Blink-182 song ever.
The song was groundbreaking and different. It’s a grown-up version of them after ‘Take Off Your Pants’ and had apparently cemented their position as pop-punk clowns. They covered tight areas like sexual appetite with more scrutiny than earlier.
Switching between Mark’s sensuality, ‘Place Your Hand In Mine’ and Tom’s breathless desire, ‘I Wanna Take Off Your Clothes,’ it appropriately amazed a majority of their clown fanbase and boldly abided the test of time.
13. Anthem
Anthem is the outro song of the album ‘Enema Of The State’ and was the distillation of Blink-182’s purpose and reason of living. It’s what their fans wanted.
The song follows a narrative of Tom getting caught by his parents when he threw a house party and attempted to cover it up. He fantasized about a time when he was able to brew trouble on his terms.
Anthem found the members at their peak recklessness and tapped into the undying themes of oppression by parents, ‘Mom and dad possess the key- instant slavery!’ and wanting to grow up, ‘Good things come to those who wait,’ it remains a milestone in their archive.
It was followed by the first song in the album ‘Take Off Your Pants’ with a more considerable degree of sincerity. The band wailed for the future damage caused by their parents’ feeble decisions.
14. Stay Together For The Kids
This particular song is part of the album ‘Take Off Your Pants and Jacket’ released in 2001. Plus, the track is kind of a sequel to the ever-famous Adam’s Song (Enema Of The State).
The song made the band play expressively on the contrast between very realistic adolescent anxiety and breezy juvenilia.
It starts with a neat melancholic melody which continues through an earlier composition. The lyrics speak sincerely into Tom and Mark’s agonizing incident of parental’s divorce.
‘Been running strong for seven years/ rather than fix the problems, they never solve them/ it makes no sense at all,’ is heartbreaking, and ‘their anger hurts my ears,’ exclaims a sense of vulnerability and helplessness they faced in their childhood.
15. Man Overboard
Man Overboard is the only studio recording track that’s the promotional single for the live album ‘The Mark, Tom and Travis Show.’
The song must not be overlooked. On top of that, it gives a hint of ‘Take Off Your Pants and Jacket’ and ‘Enema Of The State’ but a more mature version of pop-punk.
The song is rumored to be about losing a friend, Scott Raynor, to alcoholism, who was the band’s original drummer, but the rumor was never confirmed.
The track, Man Overboard, is driven by a strong bassline and the music video features a recast scene from their previous most famous clips with dwarf actors. The music video adds so much fun to the song.
Conclusion
Blink 182 had a fantastic career that revolutionized music and was loved by its fans. Hopefully, our list of the best Blink 182 songs will put you through an enjoyable memory lane. Surely, it’s not an exhaustive list but most definitely an exciting one.
