Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge formed Blink-182 in Poway, California, with drummer Scott Raynor in 1992. Tom and Mark met through a mutual friend after expressing a shared love for the same punk rock bands. They started a band. Blink (without the 182) released a tape titled Buddha, which they sold at their shows. Eventually, the band gained more traction and was signed to San Diego’s Cargo Music, where they would release two albums, including Cheshire Cat, on February 17th, 1995.
Tom’s distorted guitar opens album-opener “Carousel” with some power chords before moving on to a high-octave bass riff from Mark while the guitar rings before speeding up. Mark and Tom trade riffs before Tom reflects about a girl he has residual feelings for. As far as opening tracks go, it’s pretty impressive. This goes double for the second track, “M+Ms.” Piggybacking off the tempo of “Carousel,” Scott’s drums precede a riff played by Tom on the high E string. If you look at how the riff is played, it’s not hard, but maintaining the speed Tom does makes this song stand out. Lyrically, “M+Ms” is a Mark song about traveling somewhere far with a girl he likes. Tom picks out the notes of the power chords during the verse and strums the chorus before starting the whole thing again. What makes the song remarkable is the speed at which he is playing.
The second verse on “Carousel” establishes many tropes for Blink-182, including their signature humor. While lyrics about masturbation and suicide aren’t the best way to convey your feelings for someone, Blink-182 has a knack for writing some of the sweetest lyrics and juxtapose them with some dark humor:
My love life was getting so bland
There are only so many ways I can make love with my hand
Sometimes it makes me want to laugh
Sometimes I wanna take my toaster in the bath.
Seven of the sixteen songs on Cheshire Cat were pulled from their demo cassette, Buddha. Cheshire Cat’s first side contains four of them, “Carousel,” “Fentoozler,” “Strings,” and “Sometimes.” The shortest and fastest of these songs is “Sometimes.” The song feels like Blink-182’s homage to late 1980s Bad Religion, filtered through Mark’s lyrics about relationship anxieties. Listen to that lead part and tell me it’s not Greg Hetson inspired.
Most of the early Blink-182 albums include one slower song in contrast to the rest of the tracks, whether it’s “21 Days” on Buddha or “Adam’s Song” from Enema Of The State. This type of Blink-182 song opens the second side of Cheshire Cat. “Cacophony” is another Mark song reflecting on his fear of commitment and not being on the same page with your partner. I know if you throw a rock at pop punk in the 1990s, you will hit this type of song. Blink-182 isn’t necessarily a pioneer of this, but lyrically and musically, it’s done well, even if the lyrics are a little on the nose:
Words like forever
They scare the shit out of me
Maybe I’m afraid of commitment
Maybe you’re too distracted to see
Leaving half of Buddha in the dust was mostly a good choice, but I feel a couple of the songs left off would have made Cheshire Cat a better record. However, the changes made to the songs that were moved over from Buddha did enhance them. While the second side also boasts “Wasting Time,” a song where Mark wonders and fantasizes about what it’s like to date his crush who may not feel the same way back. The second half burns through the remaining songs brought over from Buddha and ends with joke songs
Side by side, Buddha is a better demo for a band in general, but Cheshire Cat is a better representation of Blink-182 as a band. The guitar on this album could be a little beefier, but also the track sequencing bothers me too. The jokey songs could have been spread out a little more. Ending the album with “Ben Wah Balls” and “Depends” is a bit of a stretch even for the band that wrote the song “Family Reunion” a few years later.
In all fairness, Blink-182 fixed these issues on their next album. While Dude Ranch may have been the album that got the band noticed and established these crazy kids from Poway, CA as one of the biggest bands in the world, but it was Cheshire Cat that put them on the map.