Blink 182: Cheshire Cat

Blink 182: Cheshire Cat

1994

Cargo Music / Grilled Cheese Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Carousel  2. M+M's  3. Fentoozler  4. Touchdown Boy  5. Strings  6. Peggy Sue  7. Sometimes  8. Does My Breath Smell?  9. Cacophony  10. TV  11. Toast and Bananas  12. Wasting Time  13. Romeo and Rebecca  14. Ben Wah Balls  15. Just About Done  16. Depends


I usually don't go around telling people I listen to Blink 182, y'know...It's more of a guilty secret...But the Friday Night Record Party blog pretty much means, when it comes to my music collection, there are no more secrets...I'm coming out of the closet, people! I love Blink 182!!

Is it the most intellectually stimulating music ever released? Well, no...Is it partially responsible for how mind-numbingly awful punk music is these days? Well, yea...Doesn't matter...They were an utterly unknown band at the time, who went into a studio and banged out a couple of the catchiest, speed-ball,  pop-punk albums of the 90's...These guys seemed to have an unerring melodic sense..No matter how dumb or sophomoric the joke ("Ben Wah Balls" fer example...) they always have a sharp, spirited hook to back it up....The only time I feel they get the balance wrong is the incredibly moronic  album-closer "Depends."....God, that song is so unbelievably dumb...Although, I've always got the impression that the last three tracks were intentional throwaways or bonus tracks or something.,..They're all so overly jokey and their titles are printed in a different color on the back cover...

I actually think that later in their career, when they started to drop the jokes,  is when they lost their charm... Lines like "A tank of gas is a treasure to me...I know now that nothing is free..." and "There's only so many ways I can make love with my hand..." are sacred texts in the eyes of the Ramen Noodle crowd...

(So many choices...)

So many great songs here...I'll always be partial to the opener "Carousel" and its introductory bass intro...I also love Mark's "Strings" which shows the more straight-faced "emo" element that was always an important element to their sound...But they do it best here, I think....It's really hard to single out high points...The whole thing is so fast and fun, let's just hang out and listen to "Strings" by Blink 182...Enjoy...