TL:DR - scroll all the way down for the ranking itself, if you don’t want spoilers though, read on:)

As I’ve shifted my focus to more professional writing (including fiction—‘professional’ does not only refer to something lucrative and, typically to some degree, boring), I haven’t had the wherewithal to continue writing on personal musings and takeaways from the world on my blog. I do hope to get back to that type of writing, especially given the climate surrounding my Jewish identity, as well as the simple fact that I live in New York City, and my number of musings and thoughts on the world has multiplied exponentially since I moved here.

That said, however, I was thinking about how I could continue to make use of my domain in ways other than just to promote my published writing. My dad utilizes his domain for a number of things as well, one of which being a column entitled ‘Doug’s Music Snobbery.’ I figured I would start up with something similar, combining my love of writing and music, and lists. So while I don’t have a fun name for it like he does, I am going to start devoting this page to various lists pertaining to music! So without further ado, I am very excited to present the first installation in this new little series of mine: a ranking of blink-182’s discography!

blink-182 has gone from my absolute favorite band circa 2015, to a somewhat guilty pleasure circa 2023. Tom Delonge’s high-pitched, very memeable vocals have always been attractive to me, especially when accompanied by Mark Hoppus’s deep melodic ones. And, of course, Travis Barker’s drumming capabilities, though when he got to be all buddy buddy with Machine Gun Kelly, my love for him definitely plunged a bit. Nevertheless, love them or hate them—there really isn’t much in between—blink-182 were certainly pioneers of the emo/punk/pop-punk genre, and their music has been incredibly influential, both to other 21st century punk bands, as well as their almost cult-like deep cut fans.

The band has released a total of 10 studio albums, though there are two recent albums featuring Matt Skiba as Tom Delonge’s replacement after he left the band. Which leads us to our starting point:

10. ONE MORE TIME… (2023)

The band’s most recent album was highly anticipated, given it was the first recording of the original three (Mark, Travis, and Tom) in 12 years. Their marketing team went all out, attempting to reach a potential new wave of blink fans nearly 30 years after the band’s conception, and reel back in old fans with Tom’s resurgence. The trio headlined Coachella in April of this year, and have since announced tour dates to promote the album’s release. A family friend actually saw them at Coachella, and she gave their performance a less than glowing review. Apparently, the banter between songs consisted almost entirely of the vulgar sex and drug talk that resonated so deeply with their teenage fans of the late nineties. And that is one of the things that made blink so great—in the nineties. Fast forward thirty years, and such graphic talk is not so appealing when it comes from 50-year-old men. I attempted to listen to the album when it was released, and truth be told, I couldn’t even finish it. The lyrics were reminiscent of the same content they put out in the ‘90s, but after decades of life lived, it was disappointing, unsettling, to listen to a man who is currently in cancer remission sing about blow and blowjobs. I know that not having listened to the album in its entirety is not exactly fair when ranking it this low on the list, but given the rest of their discography, it is unfortunately a no-brainer.

9. NINE (2019)

This is the second album recorded with Matt Skiba, and, while he does get some props for his vocals on California, I’m glad this was his last album with the band. This is definitely a decent album, but it doesn’t really feel like blink to me. There are some solid tracks, Remember To Forget Me is probably my favorite, Heaven is a good one, and The First Time is definitely a pretty Travis Barker heavy track, but Travis seems to be the only thing about this album that really makes it sound even a little bit like a blink-182 album. Like I said, this isn’t a bad album per se, and compared to ONE MORE TIME… it’s a fucking masterpiece, but compared to every other album in their discography, it sits comfortably at the bottom. There isn’t much else to say about this one; the most notable thing about it is that it was probably their last album that didn’t suck—I can’t see them coming out with another decent record after ONE MORE TIME…

8. California (2016)

This was the album that they were on tour for the one time I saw them. Also a Tom-less album, and that’s probably the main reason it’s ranked this low. California is a good album. I don’t think I’d say it’s any more than good, but it is good by any standard. A lot of really good tracks on this record, and again, I don’t know that I’d say there are any GREAT tracks here, but a lot of them are really really good. Bored to Death, which was the one single released off of this album, is a good track, and I’m inclined to think if it wasn’t a blink-182 song, I’d even say it was a great track, but it doesn’t ring true to classic blink in my opinion. She’s Out of Her Mind is a pretty good song, San Diego and California are both good, too. They tried to harken back to the old days, too on this album, with Built This Pool and Brohemian Rhapsody, both one-line songs under a minute long, but it still falls just a bit short without Tom. That said, without this album I probably never would have seen them live, because hell if I’d spend money to watch them perform any of the tracks off of their newest album, so I do have a bit of a soft spot for it.

7. blink-182 (2003)

This is definitely a controversial spot for the self-titled album, especially considering the Robert Smith feature on this album. This is where it gets tough though, because aside from the above three, all of blink’s albums are fantastic; this one is no exception. The self-titled record, for a lot of bands, is their attempt at a sort of magnum opus; hence the idea of a self-title. Some of my favorite albums of all time are self-titled albums (Third Eye Blind, The 1975, The Doors, Ramones, I could go on) but there are also some self-titled albums that don’t quite hold up to the rest of the band’s repertoire, this being one of them. That said, this album is classic blink-182. When I saw them in 2016, I will never forget, they opened with the song Feeling This and behind them as they played was a massive ‘FUCK’ written in fire. That alone definitely made it one of the coolest sets I think I’ve ever seen. All of This with Robert Smith is a great track, as is Here’s Your Letter. This album does have some duds though. Easy Target is simply All of This, just slowed down and with different lyrics. And of course, who could forget, I Miss You, the track that turned them (mainly Tom) into a meme. Truthfully, an argument could be made that this album is the beginning of the end for them.

6. Neighborhoods (2011)

Here’s why the ranking of their self-titled album is controversial. Many fans would never even dream of putting this album above blink-182, but anyone who has actually given this album a thorough listen understands. This album is also how I know the band is capable of lyrics that are age-appropriate and not so risque. Snake Charmer is a great example, as are After Midnight and Natives. The musical composition is a bit of a deviation from blink’s norm, but the lyrical creativity makes it work. This album proved that the three don’t confine themselves to the raunchy, crunchy vibe that they created for themselves in decades prior, but the final track on the album, Even If She Falls pays homage to the band they have always been. This would be my album recommendation for someone who is not necessarily a fan of blink-182.

5. Cheshire Cat (1995)

This album, while great, feels a little less polished to me. There aren’t really a ton of notable tracks on this album, and the album actually opens with an alternate recording of Carousel, which is the opener of their debut album as well (along with a number of other tracks that carried over to this album). M+M’s was actually the song that got me into blink-182, back in like probably 2012; I saw a Tumblr post with the lyrics “You and I should get away for awhile, I just wanna be alone with your smile,” which, in my underdeveloped 13-year-old mind, was pure poetry. It should be noted that this is probably the most wholesome lyric on the entire album, let alone just that song, which features the lyric later on “My love life was getting so bland, there are only so many ways I can make love with my hand.” Luckily, I didn’t really realize what that meant until I was a true fan come high school. This is definitely a classic blink album, fully encapsulating the vision they so clearly had for themselves. I think Cheshire Cat is actually the album in which they figured out who they were as a band, so while there may not be many GREAT tracks, it is certainly a great album.

4. Take Off Your Pants And Jacket (2001)

This album is kind of a transitional album I’d say, between the really raunchy lyrics of the band’s early stuff and the more poetic lyrics of, say, Neighborhoods. Arguably blink-182’s most innocent teenage anthem, First Date, is a great example of that transition, drawing from aspects of both the band’s past, and their vision for the future. Stay Together For The Kids is a song that much more closely resembles the later lyricism, and the real-life content which I personally was hoping for in their most recent album. In contrast, Happy Holidays, You Bastard is perhaps the epitome of raunchy blink, with the refrain “Unless your dad will suck me off, I'll never talk to you again, Unless your mom will touch my cock, I'll never talk to you again, Ejaculate into a sock, I'll never talk to you again, I'll never talk to you again.” It really is kinda crazy that they were able to turn lyrics like that into an actually enjoyable song on an overall pretty enjoyable album. And of course, I would be remiss not to mention Anthem Part Two, a political protest of a song that has maintained its relevance for over 20 years.

3. Buddha (1994)

A debut album through and through, Buddha feels to me like a low-grade (low brow? I really don’t mean low-grade in a bad way) reckoning with the grunge movement. Another not very polished record, I can only imagine what the discourse surrounding this album was when it was released—you probably just had to be there, and I was unfortunately five years late. Reebok Commercial is one of my favorite blink songs, in part because it reminds me of the good parts of high school. This was the album that I would often play on my way home from school, and as it was timed, that was the track that usually came on as I was turning out of the parking lot after waiting fifteen minutes to navigate through the parking lot; whoever designed the Bloomfield Hills High School parking lot with only ONE entry and exit deserves jail time, but I digress. This album, of course since it was their debut, is so unique, mainly because of the spotlight on Tom’s voice. See, Tom, objectively, can’t sing. But many people say that about Bob Dylan, and that’s Bob Dylan. Tom is obviously a far cry from that level of talent (as most artists are, in my opinion) but his vocals on songs like The Girl Next Door, My Pet Sally, and Point of View bare a decent amount of responsibility in this album’s success. Not to mention the melodic contrast of Mark’s vocals to the crunchy guitar and drums in tracks like Fentoozler and Strings. There’s a reason this band became successful, and Buddha is quite a large part of that reason.

2. Enema Of The State

There is a strong case to be made that this is blink’s best album, and I wouldn’t argue. There isn’t a single dud on this album, and this is the album that many people think of when they think of blink-182. If you’re not a fan, or just a casual one, it’s the blonde nurse on the album cover that makes this album so well-known. If you are a fan, you know this album as the one with all their hits. What’s My Age Again?, Adam’s Song, All The Small Things—this album is stacked. Personally, though, my favorite song on this album is Going Away To College. For a lot of fans who were teenagers at the band’s peak, this was the track that made them feel like they could truly relate to blink. For me, who was born exactly one month after this album’s release to the day, that’s not why it’s my favorite. The reason I love this song is because I could really get it, in every stage of my life. I was in middle school when I first heard the song, and then when I got to high school, it started to become my comfort song. It was still a jam when I was in college, and now, post-grad, it bares the burden of nostalgia. Even if it happened 15 years later for me, I think that is the cycle of emotions this song created for a lot of fans. Every track on this album is fantastic, but just a few other shout outs that I think could’ve and should’ve had the same commercial success as the three hits I mentioned above: Dumpweed, Alien’s Exist, Dysentery Gary, and Mutt.

1. Dude Ranch (1997)

This album is a strong contender for my favorite album of all time. It’s right up there with U2’s The Joshua Tree, Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Transmissions From the Satellite Heart by The Flaming Lips—I could go on but you get the point. This album, for me, competes with some of the absolute greatest. Yet another album without a single dud, the only song I would guess is known by the general public is Dammit (“Well I guess this is growing up” the notable lyric). It’s a shame more people haven’t heard this album, especially those who consider themselves a fan of punk or any genre with punk influence. I would describe this album as tastefully raunchy. It is not, at least I don’t think, as vulgar as some of the lyrics featured on some of their other albums, even with a track literally titled Dick Lips (which is a great track, by the way). Every time I listen to this album, I ask myself what my favorite track is, and while I’ve come to the loose conclusion that it’s Apple Shampoo, sometimes Voyeur, I think each of the tracks on this album could be justifiably ranked as the best song on the album. There are so many things I could say about each of those songs, but it would take me way too long. This album, simply put, is about the time in our lives that a lot of us spend the rest of our lives longing for. The comfort and frustration of living under your parents roof is an overarching theme of this album, and it is conveyed masterfully. As a writer, the lyrics of this album are what I strive to convey in my more poetic writing, just in a more poetic way. As a still amateur after 15 years musician, the simple chord progressions paired with the feedback and filters on an electric guitar amp, these are exactly the types of songs that I enjoy playing. If there’s anything you take away from this list, it should be that this album is a must-listen.

In summation, if you just want the ranking without justification:

10. ONE MORE TIME…

9. NINE

8. California

7. blink-182

6. Neighborhoods

5. Cheshire Cat

4. Take Off Your Pants And Jacket

3. Buddha

2. Enema Of The State

1. Dude Ranch

I welcome any and all disagreements with the sole exception that the best two albums are undoubtedly the best two, you can switch them but no album is better than those two. Objectively.

I hope you enjoyed this ranking, and rest assured, if you aren’t a fan of raunchy punk music, lucky for you this is the only band of that genre that I’ve devoted this much time to (aside from maybe Ramones, but I wouldn’t really put them in the same punk subgenre). I have a bunch of list ideas in mind already!