For myself and countless other millennials who got into punk rock during our early tweens, Dude Ranch is the album that started it all. Blink’s 1999 album Enema of the State was the one which shot them into global superstardom, but real ones know that things started to get real when Mark Hoppus, Tom Delonge, and Scott Raynor dropped “Dammit” in 1996 and set off a pop punk wave that would go on to wipe out everything in its path over the next five years. Alongside Green Day’s Dookie this was the album that would start a movement that defined the sound of middle school and high school for so many people in my generation.
It’s frankly astonishing how nearly 30 years later I’m still able to sing this entire album off the top of my head, bar for bar, like I had the lyric liner notes right in front of my eyes. We’re talking like a 95% retention rate here, which is wild especially for someone like me who has a tendency to forget by 8am whether or not I brushed my teeth in the morning. It’s an album that is embedded in my soul in a way that is indelible, the firmament that holds everything together and ties me to my youthful past. The fact that “Dammit” has continued to be a generational anthem that continues to evolve in its underlying meaning as I march through major life experiences like getting married to my beautiful wife, owning my first home, and raising two beautiful young children is a testament to the impact Blink-182 has made on my life. And the fact that they’re able to still make us all laugh with dumb immature dick jokes (“I’ve made the mistake of looking the wrong window / Her dad is big and I have never seen his face” from the song “Voyeur” legitimately lives rent-free in my head it’s so good) is just further proof that you’re only as old as you feel.
Dude Ranch is the ultimate feel-good for those in my generation. It’s a portal to the past we access in the present that helps us look towards the future. It is an album that is impossible to forget, and nearly thirty years later, still impossible to ignore.
Standout Songs: “Dammit”, “Voyeur”, “Dick Lips”, “Waggy”, “Enthused”, “Apple Shampoo”, “Josie”, “A New Hope”, “Lemmings”, “I’m Sorry”
Matthew. 