Following their ascent to stardom and success of their prior two releases, the trio was compelled to take a break and participated in various side projects (Box Car Racer and Transplants).

It also marked a musical departure from their previous efforts, infusing experimental elements, inspired by lifestyle changes (the band members all became fathers before the album was released) and side projects, into their usual pop-punk sound.

Fans were generally split regarding the band's "new" direction, but the album proved successful, selling 2.2 million copies in the United States.

The worldwide touring schedule, which saw the band travel to Japan and Australia, also found the three performing for U.S. military troops stationed in the Middle East.

The trio—guitarist Tom Delonge, bassist Mark Hoppus, and drummer Travis Barker—had seen their lives change dramatically as their band reached superstar levels of fame.

[2] Their fourth album, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001), had gone multi-platinum just as its predecessor, and throughout 2002 they co-headlined with genre forebears Green Day in arenas and amphitheaters across North America.

[6] Over the break, DeLonge began to suffer from significant back pain due to a herniated disc, and had privately become discontented by the constraints placed by the record label and the band's signature sound,[7][8] which was becoming popularized elsewhere.

[10][11] Blink producer Jerry Finn naturally returned to engineer, and DeLonge, ostensibly trying to avoid paying a session player,[12] invited Barker to record drums—making Hoppus the odd man out.

[20] In January 2003, the band rented a home in the San Diego luxury community of Rancho Santa Fe, planning to record the entire album there.

[18] The band also had fun at the home studio; DeLonge commented, "If I wasn't smoking half of Colombia I probably ran up $3 million in adult film charges.

The three initially believed their legitimacy would be in question due to the goofy nature of their earlier work, to which Smith responded, "Nobody knows what kind of songs you are going to write in the future and nobody knows the full potential of any band.

Hoppus, who reportedly was conflicted on the new direction, felt the goal of illustrating more depth to the band was achieved: "We needed to prove that there was something deeper than [...] the dudes that ran naked in the video," he said.

[33][34] More unusual instrumentation was also present: the band toyed with turntables,[35] harmonium organs, Polynesian Gamelan bells,[23] and a polyphonic tape replay keyboard.

The drum fills for the song were recorded separately than the rest of the tracks, with the tape machines "sped up and super compressed", then played back at normal speed, to sound really "deep and gigantic".

Barker would often turn on a click track and simply play, and many songs originated from his drum beats, in a reverse of a typical songwriting process.

The drums for "Easy Target" were recorded entirely separately — snare, hi-hat, toms, crash cymbals, and so on — for a uniquely disorienting effect: "to purposely confuse people."

Barker pulled from his experience on the aforementioned Transplants tour, where he recorded each drum separately in his bus due to a lack of studio space.

[30] The record opens with "Feeling This", which features flanged drums and an unconventional "syncopated Latin-flavored backbeat and a harmony-rich chorus" following a series of "half-barked" vocals.

[36] "Stockholm Syndrome", named for the psychological condition, focuses thematically on paranoia: “[It's about] being afraid of the outside world [and] convinced that people can hear your thoughts," Hoppus said.

[36] It contains an interlude preceding it, in which actress Joanne Whalley reads letters Hoppus's grandfather wrote to his grandmother during World War II.

As such, a Billboard article from the week of the album's release lists three rejected joke titles: Diarrhea de Janeiro, Vasectomy, Vasect-a-you and "Our Pet Sounds".

[69] Performances of "I Miss You" and "The Rock Show" on The WB's Pepsi Smash concert series from June 10, 2004, were released on the Australian Tour edition of the album, as well as the "Always" single.

[71] A slightly different version of the song had been released previously as part of the soundtrack for the video game Madden NFL 2004 under the erroneous title "Action".

[76] The single was a mixed success, peaking at number 10 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart during the week of July 31, 2004, but quickly falling off afterward.

In response to the idea of "All of This" becoming a possible single, DeLonge joked "We would love it because it's a bad-ass song, and The Cure's Robert Smith sings on it, and that makes us cooler than everybody else.

[84] Jenny Eliscu of Rolling Stone, while giving the album four stars, wrote that "...their lyrics are still unsophisticated and lovelorn, but even the poppiest tunes prove artful".

[37][47] The band's decision in favor of more mature material was received positively by many critics; Tim Newbound of Soul Shine Magazine wrote that "Blink show that they can retain their infectious and endearing qualities while recording music of a more thoughtful calibre.

[111] The band headed to Europe for a two-week tour near the end of the year,[55] which culminated at their final show on December 16, 2004, at the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland.

[59] Blink-182 was released at a cultural moment when the pop-punk and emo scenes were coalescing to a mainstream peak,[114] and as a new wave of artists indebted to the band, like Fall Out Boy, Paramore,[115] or Panic!

[127] Parker Cannon of the Story So Far described the album as a blueprint to remaining authentic in his career: "[Blink] were just like, “Yeah, it is a crazy time, and we're going to write the most progressive body of work that we've ever done, and we don't necessarily care if you like it or not.