This came out in 2001 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
School’s out — and it appears even the eternally sophomoric Blink-182 have graduated.
Despite its typically lowbrow title, Take Off Your Pants & Jacket is the most mature (a word I never thought I’d use in a Blink-182 review) album of the San Diego popcore trio’s career. Just a couple of years after asking What’s My Age Again?, the boys sound almost grown up on Story Of A Lonely Guy, Stay Together For The Kids, First Date and other cuts which find the Blinkers eschewing potty-mouthed punnery for (gasp!) honest emotions like love and regret, delivered via their usual hyperspeed sugar-buzz panache. OK, they still have a ways to go — Happy Holidays, You Bastard is the sort of anti-Christmas song you’d expect from these guys. But for the most part, Take Off Your Pants … is the first Blink-182 album you don’t have to be in junior high to enjoy.
