There are some people in the world who really do enjoy music. Many of them are famous, and a vast majority are not. I like it when you see a very popular musician expressing his or her love for the job through their only outlet: music itself. Now we all know who, with his new band Angels & Airwaves, gave this a shot. Mr. Tom DeLonge, former guitarist/vocalist of the pop-punk smash Blink - 182 is over and done with his childlike lyrics and fast, catchy intro riffs. Or so he claims. If you are or were a fan of Blink, you know how Tom likes to deliver. His ecstatic pop will not be the case here he would like to prove - I can tell he wants an epic sound on a grand scale; Angels & Airwaves was meant to be DeLonge's own little U2.
If anything, Tom was trying a bit too hard to accomplish his goal. The songs of
We Don't Need To Whisper are all seemingly outros to a long, memorable album. Yes, to me, it seems with almost every track I turn to a CD is ending, with the exception of a song like "The War", which by the way is quite good. If DeLonge and his bandmates really want to become "the best" they cannot rely on epic ballads. Nobody wants to listen to that over and over again. Take any band. The Who for example - I know their adored by many, but do you really want to hear
Behind Blue Eyes ten times over? This, in a nutshell is not a very attractive album. Even the members of AVA themselves are not suited for songs of such proportion...I mean, Blink 182, The Offspring and BoxCar Racer aren't bands with such credibility as U2 and Led Zeppelin. You want to blast off with a debut, keep your listeners hooked through the middle, and provoke tears at the finish to deliver the coup de grace.
Any negative aspects aside, WDNTW actually isn't all critically damaged ballad attempts. Of course it doesn't live up to its massive pre-determined ego (thanks to the mischevious frontman), it really is not a bad album. There are moments that can be candy to the ears, like the opening of "The War", that catchy riff out of "The Adventure", or the several different well-placed synths and other instruments. The instrumental on "We Don't Need To Whisper" is quite good. Nothing god-like or Reznor worthy, but of course Tom DeLonge is not the only member of the band. I like the guitars - probably one of the more musically successful sides of the album. They sound very spacey and calming, at times they wouldn't seem out of place on a Mogwai album. Atom Willard's drumming isn't at its peak but he defenitely delivers. Unfortunately these excellently timed and sounding musical expressions are out of it when it comes to meshing Tom's voice in. Or perhaps the predicament is him? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to comprehend the problem with the vocals. Points of the instrumentation where they should be peaking are brought down by a sudden soprano intrusion. But for the most part Tom's work here isn't all incompatible, but very rudimentary when it comes to singing a serenade (which is what it seems he's trying at).
Musically, this album is no rock reformation. Its no ambience revolution, either. If you're looking for a Blink 182 sequel, you've come to the wrong place. Although there are obvious hints at the self-titled here, nothing to get excited about. Tom DeLonge will never be able to fully part himself from his solid history as a pop-rocker, so don't expect anything you've never heard before. His cliche' emotions and "growing up" feeling that has tainted his songs since 2003 has not diminished at all. It has been laced with an attempt to sound amazingly brand new. If I had to boil Angels & Airwaves down to a simple equation like I've seen many a time around the web, it would have to display itself as Blink 182 finale (vocals) + BoxCar Racer (instrumentation) = AVA. That is what you need to expect if your seriously considering actually
listening to "We Don't Need To Whisper", and not out of simple curiosity, so you will not be let down; have your hopes crash and burn.
So thats really all there is to it. Many artists try to rebuild themselves from scratch. Some succeed, some do not. In this case I don't believe we'll be seing repeats from the band. I actually think AVA can make a big turnaround and comeback with a real huge album, and not just commercially. No more unimaginable egos, no more infinite outros. Angels & Airwaves is a band with loads and loads of potential that unfortunately was not expressed to its full extent on their debut. But that happens alot, right? You've all experienced seeing a mediocre first try eventually evolve into something great. I have alot of hope for this band.
If anything, give "The War" a listen.
Credits
Vocals: Tom DeLonge
Guitars: David Kennedy
Bass: Ryan Sinn
Drums: Atom Willard
