Review Summary: On "Take Off Your Pants and Jacket", Blink-182 are in a state of transition, balancing their earlier pop-punk with their later mature sound well.
In recent years, I've heard a lot of people reassess the works of Blink-182 (I bet no one ever thought such an unserious band would be analyzed in such a way), and there's been an interesting change. For many years, 1999's Enema of the State was always seen as the peak for Blink. It had the hits, it had the perfect balance of immaturity and seriousness, and it was just goddamn fun. I listened to that thing almost daily in high school and never got tired of it; it's the perfect pop-punk album. But all of the sudden, both friends as well as publications like Absolute Punk, have hailed Take Off Your Pants And Jacket as the band's best album This struck me as strange for different reasons.
First and foremost, I always remember it sounding a lot like Enema. I thought it was almost a cash-in, just doing the same thing a little different to feed to the masses. In some sense, that's true. After the band finished the album and presented it to their label, the executives told them they needed more big, fun, catchy summer songs, pretty much like the ones that Enema was made of. They obliged, writing First Date and The Rock Show. Both were hit singles and the album became the first punk album in US history to hit #1 on the charts. What I missed though was the music outside the singles, which were my first impression of the album and, obviously, first impressions can taint your outlook.
It's clear that Blink-182 are moving in a new direction with TOYPAJ, experimenting within their pop-punk framework, so I can't really blame it for not being quite as good as Enema. Enema of the State was a great album because it took everything from their first two albums, Cheshire Cat and Dude Ranch, and refined them, polishing up any problems and perfecting their sound. TOYPAJ is a great album though because it tries to explore new sounds. It makes it a little sloppier since they're still finding their footwork, but it makes it a more interesting album as a whole that rewards repeated listening more-so than any of their other work.
The two singles released are dumb and simple and exactly what people wanted, but they're not entirely bad. I do think that The Rock Show is one of the worst tracks the band ever did and the fact that bassist Mark Hoppus wrote it in 10 minutes to appease the bosses shows. First Date on the other hand is a great song with a great hook. It may not sound that different than their previous work, but lyrically it's a little more complex. Previously, the band's work had presented the topic of love in a very childish and perverted sort of way, coming off like horny teenage boys. To be fair, they were in there early days, but First Date is much more affirming, presenting them as being more hopelessly romantic than sex-crazed.
Hell, the band even takes the time to examine their desire for long-term relationships on Every Time I Look For You, the best track on the album. It slows things down a bit with a darker sort of sound. It's not quite in a minor key, but still isn't quite as peppy as we're used to. The song describes a reflection on a past relationship, with the speaker realizing, "I never did do anything that she asked, I never let what happened, stay in the past, I never did quite understand what she meant". Both examining a longing for lost love and acknowledging their own blame in bringing it to an end, the song clearly presents a band evolved, far removed from just two years earlier when they were declaring, "I need a girl that I can train".
Add on top of this Anthem Part II, Stay Together For The Kids (one of their first forays into the pseudo "emo" sound they would use on their next album), and much of the second half of the album, and it's clear that TOYPAJ was more of a step forward than I ever realized while looking at it surface level. Is it entirely a transformation? Not at all. It still has the obligatory dumb song, Happy Holidays You Bastard, which is actually one of the album's most memorable songs, and even the mature songs have some great hooks and that signature fast-paced Travis Barker thump. The name of the album is even a masturbation pun for crying out loud. It's obviously not the kind of complex, emotional album that you're going to hear from some more respected artists, but for a pop punk album in 2001, TOYPAJ was doing some really great things.
So is it their best album? I still can't quite say. In a sense it offers the greatest range of any of their albums, being a great midway between their early and later days, but being in the awkward middle phase also makes it not quite as energetic as their early albums and still not as dedicated and passionate as what they would after. In the end, it's really a toss-up. Regardless of where it sits in their ranking, its a damn fine punk album and one of their best. If you're a fan of the band, it's a must. If you're new to them, I'd say stick with their earlier albums first. Listening to how they evolve from album to album can be a rewarding experience.
