Blink-182
Take Off Your Pants And Jacket

THE REVIEW

After the success of "Enema of the State" and their greatest hits live album "The Mark, Tom and Travis Show," in 2001 Blink-182 released "Take Off Your Pants And Jacket," an album whose title speaks for itself; in fact, depending on the pronunciation, this title can mean "Take off your pants and underwear" or, by interpreting "Jacket" as "Jack it," "Take off your pants and masturbate," the jury is still out for history to decide.

The title already encapsulates the intent of this latest effort from the Californian group, which is to goof around by addressing decisively adolescent themes with strokes of punk-rock, or punk-pop for those who maliciously define it that way...

The tracklist includes thirteen songs plus two bonuses that vary depending on the edition of the CD. The dance opens with "Anthem part two," a parody of the track "Anthem" contained in the album "Enema of the state" in which Delonge yells like only he can and gives voice to the agony of adolescents in relation to society, politicians, and the limitations a sixteen-year-old can have.

The listening continues with "Online Songs" which sets the atmosphere for "First Date," a highly successful hit and the second single from the album in which the trio dedicates themselves to narrating the sensations and awkward behaviors one experiences on a first date.

Among the various tracks aimed at the masses like "The Rock Show" or "Everytime I look for You," one song stands out which was released as the third single from the album, "Stay together for the kids," where we find a verse sung by the low and calm voice of bassist Mark Hoppus and a chorus shouted by guitarist Tom Delonge, a heartbreaking and angry outburst in which the singer unleashes all the difficulty of his childhood torn apart by his parents' divorce, the unique and main theme of the track.

Overall, "Take Off Your Pants And Jacket" is an album where the influence that commercial success has had on Blink-182 does surface, but it offers more than satisfying insights for lovers of the genre and especially for the band's fans.

One of the six bonus tracks is worth highlighting, "What Went Wrong," the group's first acoustic song that decidedly breaks the festive and absurd atmosphere of the album, presenting itself as a solo guitar ballad in which Tom Delonge for the first time does not stop at the purely ironic surface of love, as Blink-182 have accustomed their audience by singing about disappointments, embarrassing situations, etc., but instead, launches into a less sentimentally stereotyped analysis, thus gifting those who listen to a track that is undoubtedly catchy but also deep.