Let me take you on a magical journey to 2002…
Pop punk. Derided by journalists. Loved by teenagers. The soundtrack to the American Pie franchise. For a while there, a bunch of bratty guitar bands swamped the charts armed with only some hair dye and three chords. I hate the sneering attitude that the music press has towards pop punk bands. Millions of people love it because it is a genre that is under no illusions. You don’t get pretentious pop punk bands (apart from the shit show that Green Day became) and you don’t have to be a music scholar to appreciate juvenile humour and outrageously catchy riffs.
Before we begin, lets run through some ground rules. For the purposes of this list, the golden age of pop punk is bookended by two Green Day albums. Dookie could conceivably be argued as being the birth of pop punk, so nothing released before that album dropped counts. That means no J Church, sorry guys. You could also argue that the truly golden era for pop punk came to a close roundabout the time that Green Day released the polarising American Idiot in 2004. Anything after that is also out. With a heavy heart then I must exclude The Wonder Years, Modern Baseball and Paramore. That leaves us with ten years worth of music to trawl through. Starting with:
10. Good Charlotte – The Young and The Hopeless (2002)
Key Track: Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous
Good Charlotte have the accolade of being the worst live band I have ever seen. Despite that handicap, The Young and the Hopeless is actually better than you remember it and key track ‘Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous’ would be considered a classic of the genre if recorded by Weezer. Sure ‘Girls & Boys’ is shitty but the rest of the album isn’t actually half bad.
9. Bowling For Soup – Drunk Enough To Dance (2002)
Key Track: Girl All The Bad Guys Wants
Bowling For Soup leaned heavily on the pop side of pop punk but they were also completely unapologetic about that fact and in the long hot summer of 2002, they dropped the album that would define them.
Sure, at 18 tracks and almost an hour in length, Drunk Enough to Dance is far too long, but when it hits, it hits hard. ‘Emily’ is actually a fantastic song and ‘I Don’t Wanna Rock’ inspires all the singalongs but it is ‘Girl All The Bad Guys Want’ that is sure to pack out any dance floor (so long as the people dancing are between 29 and 32).
8. Sum 41 – All Killer No Filler (2001)
Key Track: In Too Deep
Sum 41 always came across as Green Day’s dorky younger brothers at the time but, remarkably, All Killer No Filler has actually aged really well. Don’t believe me? Listen to ‘Nothing on my Back’ or ‘Motivation’ now and you will be overcome by the exuberance of youth. Just me?
Aside from those two bangers though, it’s all about the singles isn’t it? ‘In Too Deep’ is a classic. Just accept it. And ‘Fat Lip’ ain’t far behind it. Oh and the hard rock pastiche of ‘Pain for Pleasure’ is actually fucking brilliant.
7. The All American Rejects (2002)
Key Track: Swing, Swing
2002 really was a vintage year for pop punk wasn’t it? The All American Rejects self-titled debut album dropped in October of that year and was immediately loved by everybody. This album is a rarity at the bottom end of this list as it literally doesn’t contain a bad track.
The yelpings of lead singer Tyson Ritter are an acquired taste but tracks like ‘One More Sad Song’ and, of course, ‘Swing, Swing’ still sound great. They did become shit later on but for one glorious album they were serious contenders to the pop punk crown.
6. NOFX – Punk in Drublic (1994)
Key Track: Leave It Alone
NOFX always had more punk credentials than their peers, this is mainly because lots of their many many albums are pretty messy and incoherent. One album that does manage to maintain it’s quality over the course of a full record however is 1994’s Punk in Drublic.
Not only does it contain the bands best song in the shape of ‘Leave It Alone’, it also boasts live favourite ‘Don’t Call Me White’ and the classic single ‘Linoleum’.
5. The Offspring – Americana (1998)
Key Track: The Kids Aren’t Alright
This is probably the first album that I knew every single word to every single song, so, by default, my long suffering parents probably did too. This record was inescapable in ’98 and, you know that when teenage girls in Kappa jackets are singing your song on the back of the school bus that you have pretty much made it.
Americana is a tour de force in pop punk and in terms of pure melody, it might be the best pop punk album ever written. The Offspring have been dismissed by history as a bit of a novelty band and while they have done little to defy that notion, it is still grossly unfair.
4. Alkaline Trio – From Here To Infirmary
Key Track: Private Eye
OK… I might be stretching the definition of pop punk a little here. Alkaline Trio are one of the most underrated bands ever. They have a legion of fans, a discography full of critically acclaimed records and a formidable reputation as a live act. Most of their albums fly to close to the dying sun that is emo but their major label debut From Here To Infirmary undoubtedly has one VANS adorned foot in the pop punk camp.
From Here To Infirmary isn’t the best Alk3 album but it is probably my favourite. If we still listened to vinyl records, I would have worn this one out years ago and it is never far away from my headphones. A stonewall classic. I wrote a full review of it once upon a time but alas it went down on the good ship RobWatchesMovies. Gone but not forgotten.
3. Green Day – Dookie (1994)
Key Track: Basket Case
Dookie didn’t invent pop punk but there is no denying that it brought the fledgling genre spitting and brawling into the limelight. It is not hyperbolic to suggest that without Dookie, no other album on this list would ever have been released (with the possible exception of Punk In Drublic).
Songs such as ‘Basket Case’, ‘Longview’ and ‘Welcome to Paradise’ are pop punk in microcosm and, in Dookie, an unlikely threesome from California produced an album that will still be around long after they have succumbed to the hands of father time.
It is sad listening to Dookie now and remembering just how fucking good Green Day were. At one point they were legitimately one of the best bands in the world. Then they started releasing songs with Bono…
2. Blink 182 – Enema of the State
Key Track: What’s My Age Again?
If Green Day are the kings of pop punk then Blink 182 are surely the court jesters? Another artist who have been unfairly maligned as a joke band, the fact remains that Blink 182 did, and still do, write astonishing pop songs. The reason they are still able to headline festivals is that their brand of melodic, pop punk goodness simply makes people happy. Try listening to Enema of the State without smiling. It is literally impossible.
It was a tough call between this album and Take Off Your Pants and Jacket but then you listen to ‘What’s My Age Again?’ and ‘All The Small Things’ and realise there is only one winner.
1. Jimmy Eat World – Bleed American (2001)
Key Track: The Middle
As with Alkaline Trio, it’s a little reductive to describe Jimmy Eat World as a pop punk band. They cover a lot of bases, both sonically and tonally but there is no doubting that Bleed American is a pop punk album. And what an album it is. ‘Salt Sweat Sugar’ and ‘The Middle’ take the headlines but ‘The Sweetness’ is just as affecting and there is quality all over the album.
Tracks like ‘Authority Song’ and ‘Hear You Me’ have been a little overlooked but the whole record just screams emotion and when combined with all the hooks you are left with something truly special. As they asked on the album that preceded this one, can you still feel the butterflies?
So, there we have it. The top ten greatest pop punk albums ever. Some people will turn their noses up at this article whilst frantically clinging onto their Radiohead LP’s. I say let them. For those that know, I’ll meet you at the Warped Tour. I’ll be the one with the fake nose ring and the grey ‘streaks’…
Honourable Mentions
Jawbreaker – Dear You
Goldfinger – Open Your Eyes
American Hi-Fi – American Hi-Fi
New Found Glory – New Found Glory
The Ataris – So Long, Astoria