Dude Ranch
| Blink 182Dude Ranch
Dude Ranch is the third studio album by American rock band Blink-182, released on June 17, 1997 by Cargo Music and MCA Records, making it their major record label debut. MCA signed the band in 1996 following moderate sales of their 1995 debut Cheshire Cat and their growing popularity in Australia. Dude Ranch was the band's final recording released on Cargo and the last to feature their full original lineup, as drummer Scott Raynor was dismissed from the band in 1998. The band recorded the album from December 1996 to January 1997 at Big Fish Studios in Encinitas, California with producer Mark Trombino. With lyrical material written on their nonstop tours over the previous years, as well as completed songs, the band recorded with Trombino in sessions that lasted for five weeks. During production, the members of Blink-182 were plagued with difficulties only made worse by the rushed schedule: bassist Mark Hoppus and guitarist Tom DeLonge, co-vocalists for the band, were having vocal problems and Raynor had to record his drum tracks with a supposed injury to both feet. The album was released in the summer of 1997 and was a success. The second single, "Dammit", became a rock radio hit single and helped the band gain mainstream credibility as they toured worldwide on the Vans Warped Tour. The band toured exhaustively behind the album, creating tensions which led to the firing of Raynor in mid-1998. Three more singles were released, with "Josie" gathering MTV play and charting highly in Australia. Dude Ranch eventually grew in sales and was certified platinum in the US by the end of the decade.-"Wikipedia"
Critic Reviews
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Sputnik Music
Blink-182's final independent label released album provides solid songs for summer and hanging out.
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Vice
It's falling in love with a new person every week because you don't know what love is yet. It's every party you went to before you found out that they're all the same. It's a wrestling match with your own growing pains, expressed with a clumsy, reckless energy that not everybody felt. It's Blink-182 at their most natural, because they had youth on their side – and it's a real testament that it still holds up now that they, along with most of their listeners, don't.
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Rolling Stone
Dude Ranch served as Blink-182's major label debut and a refinement of their style. With breakout MTV hits "Dammit" and "Josie," the band positioned themselves as a group fighting against encroaching adulthood while remaining deeply unafraid of being hopeless romantics. Plus, the album saw their musicianship get tighter and the band lean in to the pop side of their punk.
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Mind Equals Blown
the band’s often snide immaturity shone through enough to make it funny without losing its charm. A precursor to the humor Blink-182 would later become known for, the band started to find a reasonable balance of humor and seriousness in the tone and lyricism of their work.
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All Music
The songwriting is still a little uneven, but overall, Dude Ranch is an improvement over their first album, Cheshire Cat.
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The Crimson
“Dude Ranch” is all about the realization of this entitlement, as the album builds to an epiphany that the protagonist is a bad person. It’s a narrative that sounds murky and toxic, but one that Blink-182 mostly pulls off through the brightness and hookiness of DeLonge’s guitar work. By keeping everything lyrically simple, Blink-182 is able to be catchy despite their darker material.
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Daily Vault
Dude Ranch is an enjoyable enough listen, but it dares to suggest that Blink-182 was capable of much greater things. This is one to put on when you need to clean out the ol' musical pipes, and just listen to something that doesn't require a whole lot of brain power.
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