Songfacts®:

• "Ensenada" is about kicking off the doldrums with a little old-fashioned debauchery. The title refers to Ensenada, a city in Baja California, Mexico. The lyric was written by Jakob Nowell, son of Sublime founding frontman Bradley Nowell, and the hookers stuff isn't meant to be taken too seriously.
  
  "I know it's funny and goofy - like that line about the president and strippers in it," Nowell told Vice. "Sincerely there are feelings of wanting to detach from reality, like, its not literally you want to go down to Ensenada and have sex with a prostitute. I think the lyric about not wanting to be someone's man anymore can be like a metaphor for wanting to give up, or rather wanting to escape into fantasy - like the fantasy of making love to a prostitute. I don't want to take myself too seriously, but I want to take my responsibility seriously. Part of making a Sublime song is that you have to be sincere and irreverent at the same time."
• Jakob Nowell also handles lead vocals on "Ensenada." His singing prowess impressed critics and fans, with some suggesting he was better than his father.
• This is the first new song since 1997 ("Doin' Time") that Sublime released as Sublime. The band broke up in 1996 following Brad Nowell's death. They returned to action in 2009 as "Sublime With Rome," with Rome Ramirez as lead singer. In 2023 they started using the name Sublime again when Jakob Nowell took over on vocals, but they didn't release a new song until "Ensenada" in 2025.
• "Ensenada" went to #1 on Billboard's Alternative Airplay chart, where it stayed for a resounding eight weeks. The only other Sublime song to top that chart was their signature tune, "What I Got," which stayed for three weeks at #1 back in 1996 the chart was known as Modern Rock Tracks. The 28-year, 10-month gap between #1 hits on that tally is the longest gap for any act.
• Original Sublime members Bud Gaugh and Eric Wilson also contributed. They're listed as co-writers along with Zane Vandevort and Jon Joseph, who produced this track.
• "Ensenada" was the lead single off Sublime's fourth album, Until the Sun Explodes. It was their first in 30 years and was made in tribute to the senior Nowell, who died in 1996 from a heroin overdose.
• Sublime spawned from a self-created indie label they named Skunk Records, and Until the Sun Explodes carries on that tradition. The band formed SVN/BVRNT Records to put it together.
• The music video for the song features scenes from modern Sublime shows and studio recordings combined with photos and footage from the Brad Nowell era.