Enema Of The State

If there is any other album that came out that spoke directly to 15 year old me, I don’t know what it is. I spun this album so many times in my discman (parents wouldn’t approve if I played in my stereo) that I swear I was going to burn a hole through the CD. The greatest pop punk album of all time. They mastered the genre.

Yeah, there is no good reason this was left of the list. Kind of THE pop-punk album in my mind.

I must admit that I like finding "should have beens on the list" more than local rarities or personal favorites. Although in this case it is so close to a guilty pleasure... great memories anyway, and a bunch of truly great songs!

It's basically the defining pop-punk album, sharing a tight first place with Dookie. How this wasn't on the original list is genuinely baffling to me.

Another album I'm surprised wasn't on the list, just cause it was so influential for that angsty pop-punk formula that was very popular in middle/high school for me. I suppose it has longevity but it's not something I wanna listen to anymore. Still, an important punk album.

I met a girl in college who was into Blink-182. Listening to this now makes me wonder what she saw in it. If I had ended up with her, I might have developed a special place in my heart for this. I think I dodged a bullet.

The superior 182 album. Way better than the official album on the list

♬This world's an ugly place, but you're so beautiful to me♬

The drivers in traffic were witness of how much I enjoyed this album. So many sing-along moments.

Ahhh look, I was 15 when this album came out. I wasn't a huge blink fan, but they were VERY hard to ignore. They'd already had a few hits, really quickly took over Offspring/Green Day, poor NOFX left in the dust. I remember the radio charts were pretty full of boy/girl bands and blingy rap at the time, the "big alternative" music was mostly nu-metal, but then these guys were just fucking THERE. And this was their peak. All the lyrics appealed to kinda loser teenage boys like me - felt like the whole album was about girls not wanting to know you or not being allowed to go out on the weekend, which was my direct experience in my teens lol. Crazy how much that resonated with me now, but eh. NOFX is still way better and criminally underrated imo, but Blink 182 was also pretty rad. 4/5.

Definitely enjoyed this more than blink-182 S/T but also definitely grew out of pop punk. Some of the stuff on this album also aged pretty poorly. 7/10

A finde piece of commercially viable college skate punk. Quite entertaining

I can confirm that I am 23 and no one likes me

🤟

Era-defining pop-punk album

8/10. Okay, I can see why this album gets hyped up. Great name for an album as well

Classique Pop punk, de bons souvenris avec beaucoup de nostalgie. 4.5

Blink devote themselves to angsty miniatures on Enema, and the middle stretch boasts a trio of songs as good as anything out there. After that, the landing feels a little underwhelming, the aftertaste simplified. Still, every melody has a place, electricity courses, there are snatches of what, telling on oneself, one could even call wisdom.

This LP stands on a strong basis of fun (if somewhat repetitive) pop-punk tracks, but what elevates it to classic territory is the more involved songwriting efforts – "All The Small Things," "Adam's Song," and "Age Again?" are the beating heart of this album, serious narratives wrapped in a deceptive gauze of power chords and feedback. A few more of these tracks could have done the album well (it still feels a little off-balance in favor of somewhat generic filler), but the sheer popularity and staying power of the core classics here means this is a notable listen and a great addition to the list.

Enema of the State is pop-punk 101: catchy hooks, juvenile lyrics, fast tempos, and a sense of bratty fun. It’s emblematic of a specific moment in late-'90s/early-2000s music culture, but it's not particularly groundbreaking or deep. Two massive singles gave it rocket fuel, but musically, there were much better bands doing this kind of thing with more bite and substance. It's fine. Just not essential. 3* for cultural impact, not musical innovation.

It's ok I guess- not my cup of tea and a bit manufactured. I think if I'd grown up with this it would mean more. It's like a boyband with a pop-punk slant.

Blink-182 and me will never be best friends. But I have to say that after actually listening to this properly, they climbed a notch on the friendship ladder. Instead of being long lost high-school classmates who ignored each other during the entirety of the high-school years, we are now actually on speaking terms. I now see us having a beer together from time to time. Nothing fancy, and only when they do bring plenty of snacks to go with the beers.

i'm sure it's great if you're 13

Not a fan of blink-182. They kinda stink-182.

Stay classy, San Diego. Seemingly overlooked in the ongoing debate about just how far outside punk this is (obviously way outside according to major gatekeepers’ and purists) is whether or not making punk more accessible and safe for mall rats might be the punkest thing of all. But more to the actual point, this is silly and puerile, sophomoric and jejuene and seems maybe to have got more so over time. Its appeal to a certain cohort also seems clearer in retrospect, thanks to the pristine production and catchy hooks. Blink-182 certainly did not go broke (and appear to have had fun in) underestimating the taste of the American public (or at least suburban teenagers), though it's not clear they had any better taste; they also made themselves entirely deserving targets of elitist critical disdain. Maybe that’s a fair trade. Certainly doesn't belong on list proper, save as a replacement as Britney Spears, whose at least as punk as this lot, at least in one's (not entirely informed) view.

Music to refuse to clean your room by.

The musical equivalent of American Pie 3. Purile, unfunny, and objectively bad. Also, totally lacking in edge. Just so, so predictable and dull. Rating: 1 Playlist track: All the Small Things Date listened: 16/11/24

Bratty in a way that charli xcx could only dream of achieving. It's a masterfully-executed vision, but it is so goddamn stupid

Oof. This short-lived genre of music sounds whiny in retrospect.

Overrated

I frickin' love this album. Pop punk at its finest. Maybe the Party Song is a bit weak, but otherwise the album is start to finish catchy mostly fun (thanks Adam's Song) bangers that double down on goofball youth and their priorities.

A really powerhouse of an album with unlimited energy that gives such a good and unfiltered view of young adulthood and it's joys and pains.

I remember hating the blink-182 album that’s on the list so I’m baffled why they didn’t choose this one instead. It has all of their hits, still holds up today, and is a pretty important album of the 90s so why not choose it. Everyone knows all the hits from this so I won’t repeat them here but almost everything rocked on this album. This would’ve gone even more crazy if I had been born 15 years earlier or discovered this when I was like 14. Also pretty decent walking around the park high music surprisingly.

When I think of poppy punk skater music, several songs from this album comes to mind. Blink-182 sort of defined the genre and not having this on the 1001 list is an oversight considering the influence this had on music. All The Small Things and Whats My Age Again? Were monster hits. More reason why leaving this off was an oversight I would think. Not to mention, it’s catchy as all get-out. Fun!

I feel 18 years old when I listen to this (although maybe not the actual 18-year-old I was). Fun!

Believe it or not, I've never listened to this one all the way through. I don't know why. It's a classic, and it should have made the list. The touchpoints here are incredible, from the now played out huge hits, to Adam's Song, which hinted at the future and bigger things. I keep seeing comments about another Blink album on the list. I never saw one?

All of the songs (except maybe Adam's song) sound pretty similar, but I like the song they all sound like! Often silly, regularly fast, the sound of my high school and the years that followed. I counted, and think I have covered over half these songs in one band or another. This is more a sign of time and genre than quality, but still interesting (to me at least)!

Just a monumental album to me, and one that will always hold a special place in my heart.

This is a banger of an album, really takes me back.

It’s pop-punk perfection and a perfect reflection of Y2K adolescence No notes.

Nice! Great album, I'm actually seeing Blink in about a week so good timing on this one.

A titan of pop punk. All the Small Things is just an absolutely iconic song, and there's so many more here too.

Love this album, though their follow-up Take Off Your Pants and Jacket might be even better. I know some people don't like Blink or think they watered down punk, but it's just as cleverly irreverent as classic punk and way more melodic. So why hate on pop punk? A weakness of classic punk is limited musicianship and flawed vocals, and that's not here. It is FUN as hell. Everybody knows the two big singles What's My Age Again and All the Small Things (stone cold classics), which are models of juvenile delinquency and/or pop punk simplicity, but Adam's Song shows their deeper lyrical and musical ability. Other great lighthearted songs are Dumpweed, Don't Leave Me, Dysentery Gary, The Party Song, Wendy Clear, while another great deeper song is Aliens Exist (still has goofy moments). This album was a watershed moment for pop punk - a genre that lasted just as long as other genres recognized on the 1,001 list - k and really should've been on the list.

Another should've been, or rather, I thought was, on the list album. A fine shot of nostalgia.

RIGHT IN THE FEELS. This brings me back. Can't disagree with blink-182. 2 people picking blink on "personal choice" records is a bit wild... I think the Blink 182 self titled is probably "more 1001" however you can't go wrong with Enema of the State.

This album is the prototypical pop-punk album along with Green Day's Dookie. There's no reason it should have been left off the original list. I do prefer Green Day to blink-182, but this is still a great record. I was definitely the target demographic, but was not into this kind of music when I was younger. I recognize now that this is a seminal album criticizing a cookie cutter suburban existence. Ironically, blink-182 themselves were criticized for their slick over produced sound. Regardless, this album manages to still sound energetic and potent with an added sense of nostalgia.

I have heard this album previously. I was surprised that it did not make the official list given what albums did make the list. I do not think I would revisit the entire album again but I would revisit several songs again. I will round up.

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: Don’t leave me, What’s my age again?, Dysentery Gary, All the small things

One of the best albums of so many people’s childhood/teens/early adulthood . Blink 182 was able to capture so many people with their garage punk rock sound. This album has at least 4 major hits and emus easily their best album. Everything about growing up in the late 90s early 00s can be heard through this album. A nostalgic album that still rocks hard today. 8.4/10

Nostalgic

Lots and lots of energy, fun and catchy tunes. I like it.

Pop-punk, skate punk. Un megahit. Venga, un 4.

I'm sure that I've mocked this band over the years and I'm a little annoyed thinking about Tom DeLong walking around the stands in San Diego wearing a Padres jersey while they were beating my beloved Dodgers in the playoffs last night (first thing I thought of when this album was generated last night.) I'm not gonna deny catching myself singing along to All The Small Things when it came on today though. There's always been a place for pop punk going back to The Buzzcocks and this is a fun poppy representation of pop punk that I totally would've been into if I was in high school when it came out.

Oh! They're from Poway!

Not over the moon, but maybe just mooned...

Blink’s best album and a fantastic slice of energetic and catchy pop-punk, with Travis Barker solidifying his place in the group with some of the most ridiculously quick and technical drumming the genre has ever seen. The only thing keeping this from being a 5 is that there are a couple of songs (especially Mutt and Wendy Clear towards the end) that do absolutely nothing for me. But when the album hits, it really hits. There are the huge singles What’s My Age Again and All the Small Things, the more retrospective Adam’s Song, and the up-tempo ragers Dumpweed and The Party Song - so much variety for a pretty commercial pop-punk record and just a very fun time

Fully enjoyable. I was more of a Sum-41 girl, not sure why, but this took me right back. Unfortunately will never get my head round the whole Kardashian thing.

4.5

Admittedly, I avoided Blink because everyone I knew who was into them was into *only* them and that's it. Plus, my listening of "Take Off Your Pants and Jacket" didn't have me go back for more. I'd imagine it'd be a different story if I went with this album and not the former. Blink's juvenile sense of humor is on display, for better and worse, but their ability to write a pop hook really kills. The switching vocals provide relief that you'll never get too bored or annoyed by one voice. It's a solid album of youthful nostalgia, at least for me. Favorite tracks: "Aliens Exist", "What's My Age Again?", "Don't Leave Me"

Never been a huge blink-182 fan but this album was everywhere around that time period. It really nails the time period and atmosphere of the time. It's a baffling ommission from the original list. My personal rating: 3/5 My rating relative to the list: 4/5 Should this have been included on the original list? Yes. Strong yes.

Tell me you're an elder millennial without telling me you're an elder millenial. Naturally Blink 182 started out kinda X-y but this album particularly has to be one of the signifiers, stating that Gen X had truly passed. I think that the start of the changeover is probably pretty easily tied into the 1995 Amy Heckerling fillum Clueless. Clueless featured the dying strains of X - Bowie, Radiohead, Coolio, for real X-gen stuff. But notably there was also some No Doubt and Mighty Mighty Bosstones, whose ska-punk ushered in the millennials, and Blink 182, The Offspring and Green Day all jumped into new, more poppy and rocky variations, but all very noticeably shifting from a late X sound to a discernibly different Millennial one. Naturally, as one of the last of X I find Blink 182 to be mostly juvenile and overhyped. That being said, a couple of tracks on here are genuinely pretty good. And they do very much exemplify the change of an epoch. So there's that.

Blink 182 are one of the titans of the 90’s/00’s pop punk surge. Great music overall

Wasn’t my favourite album at the time, (was dude ranch when I was 14) but looking back this is probably peak blink 182, when they improved there production and still had an edgy pop punk sound. They went downhill from here in my eyes.if I was to include 1 blink album on the List it would have to be this one.

This was a good nostalgic listen! The purer simple days of pop punk. Love it

May 9, 2025 HL: "Going Away to College", "What's My Age Again", "All the Small Things", "Adam's Song", "Wendy Clear" blah, skate punk, no thanks. (35 minutes later) there is something to this skate punk First Blink-182 album, but doesn't really feel like it with how much I've heard the most famous tracks. The *less* famous tracks don't stray far from the formula, but I'd be shocked if they did. *throws 4 stars on the counter* Keep the change

I'm not a blink-182 fan or anything, but I think their earlier stuff is pretty good. This album is kinda where they started to go downhill for me. It till has some great songs like Dysentery Gary, but also some absolute cringe like Adam's Song. Still, compared to most of these user-submitted albums (and a lot of the original list, really), I enjoyed this more.

Great US pop punk. Wholesome and difficult to dislike.

Genuinely surprised how much I enjoyed this. It just flows so nicely as an album and does that gapless thing which is so cool.

Pop-punk inofensivo, bastante orientado al público juvenil. Estilo definido y repetitivo, misma secuencia. Me gusta, aunque le hubiese faltado algo más de agresividad o de variedad

You don't really need my review. You know what it is. Its good and a landmark. It should have been on the main list.

I thought for sure this album would have been on the original list.

What the hell, was this not included on the original list? Of all the misses so far, I think this might be the most egregious. The cultural impact was (and is) massive, and I really enjoy the silliness of blink-182 who never become truly obnoxious like some of their pop-punk peers.

My age is 23. Nobody likes me. 4/5

Between Tom DeLonge's whiny vocals and plenty of terrible lyrics, blink-182 should be intolerable. But somehow it still winds up being infectious despite those glaring faults. The complete absence of blink-182 on the 1001 is an inexcusable oversight. I don't love them, but I can't deny their popularity and impact in the late 2000s. They inspired a lot of other whiny singing and cringy pop punk, so overall a good addition on an album I have very mixed feelings about.

There was a blink-182 album on the official list and I feel like that was a sufficient amount. Why not pony up some less mainstream post punk material, something in the vein of Operation Ivy or Bad Religion I hadn't heard of already? Aside from that I certainly don't hate this - musically it is very adept, the lyrics are serviceable if not particularly deep. A surprising amount of it is pretty standard love or breakup songs, and the title and cover photo are kind of the edgiest thing about it.

Really enjoyable, albeit slightly juvenile, power pop. Hardly any hardcore punk and so much sleeker and more radio-friendly than, say, Green Day’s “Dookie” or Offspring or Sum…

Catchy, energetic and fun, with a strong pop sensibility. A bit lyrically juvenile for my tastes and I'm not a fan of the vocals, but "All the Small Things" is a classic.

Half of the album is kind of good

Another Blink submission from a user? Why does this band have such an intense chokehold on people in my age bracket? I'll never understand. They have some good funny tunes, the singles are solid. But they're not revolutionary or awe-inspiring in any way. I will say though, that I think this album should be the one included in the original list to best represent the band. Dude Ranch sucks. This is the album that cemented these goofs as a permanent fixture in the pop rock realm.

Puerile and funny!

I like it

Fun pop punk with some deeper thoughts as well.

Regardless of quality: This album is a glaring omission from the original list, considering both it’s commercial success and it’s cultural impact. This being left out indicative of the author(s)’s negative bias towards the pop-punk and emo music that was popular during this time (The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance is another similarly missing classic). Regarding the quality: Energetic and fun. Not totally my thing, but I can see why many are fond of it.

It's nostalgic, it's a great sound and it has two classics on it. But it is a victim of CD culture, and gives you a lot of samey filler to fill the disc.

No more blink 182 please

These guys came on the scene as I was hitting the end of high school. I didn’t really get into them at the time. I found it a little juvenile. That hasn’t changed. I tried. I gave it a good shot. Just didn’t do it for me.

yo OP just in case you don't know... https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/angels-and-airwaves/i-empire/

Although a landmark album for both Blink and the pop punk genre at large, Enema of the State is primarily defined by it's singles. And they're good singles too! The catchiness of All the Small Things, the wit of What's My Age Again, the surprising depth of Adam's Song, all make this album the powerhouse that it is. The rest of the tracklist feels like it doesn't quite reach the same heights, lacking in either hooks or fresh ideas or anything else. Most egregious is Travis Barker's incessant need to do the most drum flourishes on any given song, which makes me think he's too preoccupied with his own talent to just play the damn song with a simple beat. Whatever. CONTENDER FOR THE LIST: As important as this album is, I might prefer to go with their self-titled instead.

I've heard this. 3?

This style of punk has never been my thing, but they do it well enough here and come away with some legitimately good songs.

Dated and cheesy

Känt omslag och några monsterhits. Ganska okej.

I feel the same way about this as the other blink-182 album that was user submitted (was there collusion???). I just don't care for it. The singer sounds like a 14 year old whiny brat. I'll even go so far as to offer another unpopular opinion - although I like punk and I like power pop, "pop-punk" is a crappy genre of music. It's a good album cover though, I'll give them that. 2 stars.

I'm not one to say pop punk is necessarily a betrayal of punk overall. But it has to be done right -- which means that a genuine punk spirit needs to be found there, with the minimum amount of transgression required to challenge an audience. And the pop elements must *also* be worthy of your time -- you got to have truly memorable hooks offering some welcome dynamics somehow, so as to not repeat the same sort of dross again and again. Heck, I love Green Day's *Dookie*, so I know bands can pull this sort of thing off with the right set of skills. What about blink-182 circa-*Enema of the State*, then? Are they both 'good punk' and 'good pop'? This LP is supposedly their magnum opus, emblematic of a specific moment in late-'90s/early-2000s music culture, after all... As far as punk transgression is concerned, you can put it in a nutshell thanks to that final line in opener "Dumpweed": "I need a girl that I can train". Eyeroll. Well, blink-182, good job for catching the incel spirit a decade before the word even existed! Not really what I call 'punk transgression' in my book, but I guess that's a way to represent the effect of raging hormones in a male teenager's body, and how said effect feels harder to go through when you're the odd one out living in the damn suburbs. That said, this doesn't change the fact you have to be a f*cking idiot to sing along to this song, whether then or now. Of course, I'm aware that there are layers of (self-)irony aimed at boys elsewhere in the album. But it's just that those layers are not particularly witty either. In an excerpt from *Enema of the State*’s 2000 tour booklet, lead singer Tom DeLonge actually had to explain the meaning of “Dumpweed,” stating: "Girls are so much smarter than guys and can see the future as well as never forget the past. So that leaves the dog as the only thing men are smarter than." Now that's a hilarious statement, and I'm left wondering why on earth Tom never thought of inserting such sharp one-liners in his lyrics -- lyrics that are on the contrary either vague, hackneyed or ham-fisted overall. Looks like the guy can be genuinely funny. The thing is, he was probably too lazy and complacent to ever bother about what he actually sings. Well, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong or NOFX's Fat Mike certainly ain't lazy like that. What about the pop parts in the blink-182 formula then? Let's just say that the hooks are not that catchy to my ears, the chord sequences clone each other so fast it feels you're stuck inside a top secret Big Pharma laboratory, and even worse, the vocal lines, themselves cloned on an assembly line, are so goddamn... flat. While a lot of people hear something "bratty" in those vocals, I just perceive the latter as innocuous and devoid of any real flavor. Can you hear that as well? Consequently, I never could understand blink-182's commercial success. It makes me feel like the -- at the time -- young, en masse target audience for pop-punk just had awful music tastes. And it's something I refuse to believe to this day, in spite of said success. It's just mind-boggling for me. To be clear, the problem with this album is not that it should be groundbreaking or deep -- it would indeed be a little foolish to expect such depth from Tom, Mark and Travis, whose main goal is obviously to stick to their formula as much as they can. No, the *real* problem is that there were tons of better bands in that genre out there during the late nineties, doing this kind of thing with more bite and imagination, even as they stayed within the constraints of pop-punk or "skate-punk". Whether musically or lyrically, *Punk In Drublic*-era NOFX just wiped the floor with blink's daft, harmless tunes, just to take one example. And for a lot of people aware of that scene during the nineties, it was therefore a little difficult buying into blink's shtick when it broke out. Add the processed vocals and streamlined-to-a-fault production values (to make pop-punk palatable for general audiences, Jerry Finn had certainly done a much more subtle job six years earlier on *Dookie* -- and it's not the discreet addition of organ and synths here and there on *Enema Of The State* that can redeem that "streamlined" effect), and what you have here is a record clearly favoring style over substance. *This* here is what feels like a betrayal of punk for me, period. With all that in mind, *Enema Of The State* is still objectively a far better and more cohesive album than the later blink-182 LP suggested on the users list. Two massive singles surely gave it rocket fuel, one of whom ("What's My Age Again?) I still find extremely boring, with the other being quite alright ("All The Small Things", with its goofy surf-rock-adjacent "na-na-na" hook and subtle synth flourishes in the background). And I also like "Adam's Song". The chords, instrumentation and arrangements in it are not particularly original, but something happens there vocally and lyrically that makes that one stand out from the pack. I guess it's what a listener can expect from a good pop song, right? Plus, you can sense that the band members were (secretly) fans of The Cure at the time when you listen to that one -- just as they adapted Robert Smith's formula into a sunny-drenched, major-mode, California-friendly translation. It's very subliminal, of course. But the rest is just a borefest for me. Just not essential, in spite of its commercial success. *2* for cultural impact, maybe. And that feels generous. 2/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums. 7/10 for more general purposes: 5 for the musicianship and "professional" production values + 1.5/5 for the.artistry + a 0.5 bonus for cultural impact. Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ----- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 48 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 61 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 112 (including this one) --- Hey, Émile. J'ai enfin trouvé le temps de répondre ! Regarde sous la review de *Young, Loud And Snotty* des Dead Boys !

blink-182 makes me think of the lyrics to Zappa's "Tinseltown Rebellion": But then they took some guy's advice To get a record deal, he said They would have to be more punk Forget their chops and play real dumb Or else they would be sunk The songs just feel... dumb. And I could go my whole life without hearing "All The Small Things." NEXT. Top songs: "Dumpweed," "What's My Age Again?"

A couple things bother me about this album. Much of the time, the drums are a constant metronome at the forefront of the mix. It’s not so much Travis Barker, but the punk pop genre. And the vocals sound like a teenager in the basement whining at his mom to make him a grilled cheese. When in reality it’s a dude in his mid 20s perfectly capable of melting cheese on bread in a buttered pan his damn self. Adam’s Song is amazing though. The drums are present but in a supporting role. Moreover, the vocals don’t sound whiny, but rather like loneliness oozing through the speakers earned from months and months on the road away from home.

Sorry No 1

I already commented on this when I heared blink-182. I think this just infantile punkpop and shouldn't be on anybodies eindlist in my opinion. Sorry if any vulnerable souls were hurt while reading this subjective review 😉

Simply awful