E-Mail This Article to a Friend Serious jokers The ‘mature’ pop punk of Blink-182 and the Offspring BY SEAN RICHARDSON

With all due respect to Nirvana for opening the alterna-rock floodgates, the history of mainstream punk revolves around three major breakthroughs: Green Day in 1994, Blink-182 in 1999, and Good Charlotte in 2002. Bridging that generation gap is no picnic, as Green Day discovered when their subdued (but still catchy) 2000 album Warning (Reprise) failed to go platinum. Today, Good Charlotte and countless others are bringing punk and emo to kids who were still in diapers when Nirvana blew up. So every time a band from the old guard release a new disc, it begs the question: can they still cut it?

Green Day will answer that question later this year, when they’re expected to unleash the follow-up to Warning. Meanwhile, two other veteran punk acts — Blink-182 and the genre’s second-biggest band of 1994, the Offspring — have already answered yes, at least as far as rock radio is concerned. Released in November, Blink-182 (Geffen) is already platinum, and the Offspring’s Splinter (Columbia) went gold as soon as it came out in December. Both bands figure to bolster their sales even further when they hit the road this summer: the Offspring have yet to announce any East Coast dates, but Blink are scheduled to play the Tweeter Center in Mansfield with No Doubt on June 8.

Like Green Day’s Warning, Blink-182’s new album is the one where they try maturity on for size. But their mischievous side remains intact on the first single, "Feeling This": "Let me go in her room/I wanna take off her clothes," guitarist Tom DeLonge sings before the track reaches the 30-second mark. As usual, DeLonge and bassist Mark Hoppus take turns on the microphone, and Hoppus changes the mood from lust to love on the bridge: "I’m not in this scene, I think I’m falling asleep/But then all that it means is I’ll always be dreaming of you." The hint of funk in drummer Travis Barker’s thunderous backbeat is the one significant departure from the Blink norm, but fans are sure to swoon over the a cappella harmonies from DeLonge and Hoppus at the end of the song.

Ever since they emerged from San Diego as America’s favorite mall punks with their third MCA album, Enema of the State, Blink have excelled at combining silliness and poignancy. Whether Hoppus is choosing TV over sex on "What’s My Age Again?" or DeLonge is lamenting his parents’ divorce on "Stay Together for the Kids," the band’s energy and tunefulness always ring true. In the wake of 2001’s Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, DeLonge and Barker kept busy with the like-minded side project Box Car Racer while Hoppus took some time off to be with his family. Barker also joined up with Rancid’s Tim Armstrong in Transplants, whose debut is a raucous foray into hip-hop, dub, and industrial.

Both of those bands got plenty of attention, but neither ruled the airwaves like Blink, who have landed an impressive nine consecutive singles in Billboard’s modern-rock Top 10. The latest one is "I Miss You," a tender ballad that juxtaposes an elegant string accompaniment with DeLonge’s inimitable whine: "Don’t waste your time on me, you’re already/The voice inside my head." In the liner notes, DeLonge reveals that the track’s acoustic vibe (Hoppus plays an upright bass, Barker uses brushes) is inspired by the Cure oldie "The Lovecats." There’s also an old-school goth look to the video, in which the boys wear suits and two mysterious girls get hot and heavy in a haunted house. For a band whose greatest hit is the caffeinated sing-along "All the Small Things," they do melancholy just fine.

Since Blink producer Jerry Finn also scored hits with AFI and Alkaline Trio last year, maybe the band are heading into darker territory by osmosis. In any case, they pull off the ultimate goth-punk coup on Blink-182 by writing and performing "All of This" with the Cure’s Robert Smith. Four years removed from his most recent radio hit and about to stage a comeback with the help of hard-rock producer Ross Robinson, Smith rises to the occasion with his trademark romantic gloom: "Another night with her/But I’m always wanting you." DeLonge and Hoppus moping alongside him, as they do on the chorus, is something few Cure fans would ever have wished for, but the low-key ballad is eerie enough to silence the skeptics.

Like AFI’s masterful Sing the Sorrow (DreamWorks), Blink-182 is pop punk at its most experimental — the hooks are still there, but this time they’re cloaked in weirdness. Failure/Year of the Rabbit frontman Ken Andrews, the art-rock cult hero named as an inspiration in the liner notes, is credited with "additional instrumentation" on two songs. One of these, "Violence," hinges on a twitchy, muffled verse and ends with two minutes of melodramatic piano and spoken word. Piano is the album’s secret weapon: it shows up again on the brooding "Down," which segues into the Transplants-style hip-hop diversion "The Fallen Interlude." Written and performed with Cypress Hill buddy Sick Jacken, that song incorporates everything from stately jazz guitar to feverish pounding from Barker, the most powerful drummer in punk.

Two hit singles aside, the disc’s moody soundscapes might leave long-time Blink fans with one simple question: where have all the snappy pop songs gone? Hoppus gives those fans what they want on "Go," a cathartic blast of speed and melody with a chilling narrative about abuse. "Mom, get in the car and let’s drive away/She said, ‘I’m sorry, Mark, but there’s nowhere to stay,’ " he sings, taking an emotional look back at some dark childhood memories. On "Here’s Your Letter," he addresses romantic hardship with sweet harmonies and a gratuitous expletive: "Fuck, I can’t let this kill me, let go/I need some more time to fix this problem."

Hoppus always seems to end up with the best tracks on a Blink album, but DeLonge’s sillier contributions are more than just comic relief. On the metal-inflected "Asthenia," he’s an astronaut looking down on Earth and wondering whether he should even bother returning: "Should I go back, should I go back, should I/I hope I won’t forget you." Give or take a few toothless love songs, Blink-182 is a successful stab at sophistication from one of pop punk’s most consistent hitmakers.