Enter Travis Barker. This is Blink's first album with their new drummer. I'm not quite sure if the average Blink fan would even know that Travis wasn't always the drummer. In fact it may interest you to know that Scott Raynor was their original drummer. Of course eventually he left the band which led Mark and Tom to get Travis to replace him.
With this change, the band went to a more pop-punk sound in Enema Of The State. A lot of their songs became more catchy. This is probably what led to their mainstream success with this album. Now people who once went like "What, Blink-18who?!" went to "YEAAH Blink-182!! (those naked guys!!)". Does this success mean that they sacrificed their meaningful lyrics that made me love them in the first place? The simple answer is NO. Thankfully having a new drummer and changing their sound a bit didn't really impact the depth of their lyrics. Their words still carry many meanings and from them you can draw deeper interpretations.
Enema Of The State is the album that pretty much changed everything for Blink. A new drummer, a new sound, and a brand new start. The songs retain their familiar Blink style and yet have something different. The themes vary wildly from love, aliens and suicide to growing up, partying and rebelling. "Adam's Song" in particular is one of the heaviest songs the band has made. It pertains to suicide and yet by the end of it it has a slightly more hopeful feeling. They also branched out with the use of different instruments such as a synthesizer in "Wendy Clear". Oh and let me speak briefly about "What's My Age Again", probably one of the more popular songs. It has an incredibly catchy sound and yet if you really break down the lyrics you can come up with some amazing interpretations. It's a different album from their older ones. Different yet still excellent.
As far "as songs I recommend I'd say: "Dumpweed", "Aliens Exist", "Adam's Song", "Mutt", "Wendy Clear", and "Anthem".
Alright now time to talk about The Mark, Tom, and Travis Show, their only live album. I think it was a smart move to release it the year after Enema. I say this because there are in fact quite a few songs from their older albums on it. I kinda feel like this is their way of saying HEY we got a new drummer but guess what we can still play our older songs just as well as we used to. Also this album is heavy with their witty vulgar humor. You really have to go in expecting some disgusting and yet oddly enough hilarious banter between Mark and Tom.
It's really cool to hear the differences in how they perform the recorded versions of their songs and their live ones. There is one song on the album that is recorded, as in not live, "Man Overboard". It's one of my favorite songs by them. It reflects the style of Enema by being both catchy yet deep. I'm sure if you listen to it you'll understand why. It tells a story that I'm sure most people can relate to which is the loss of a friend.
Finding this album, in a physical form, can prove to be a little tough, but I'm sure if you search really hard for it you'll eventually find it as I did.
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