Review Summary: AVA finally reach the stars
Nobody who has followed Tom DeLonge over the last eight years could ever claim the man lacks ambition. Following the dissolution of Blink 182 he quickly began speaking of a music revolution with new band Angels and Airwaves’ debut We Don’t Need to Whisper. Many Blink fans were left with a sour taste in their collective mouths upon hearing the album and have been unable to forgive DeLonge ever since, who for his part has only managed to marginally dial down the hyperbole with each new release. Finally with the release of Dream Walker, the band’s fifth effort, the music revolution that was promised has begun.
To be clear, this musical uprising is not as world conquering as DeLonge would undoubtedly have hoped back in 2006 but instead takes place exclusively within the context of Angels and Airwaves’ music. Dream Walker is a genuinely exciting and (more unbelievably) genuinely surprising from a band that’s formula has been intransigently unchanged since I-Empire. Remember the often insufferably long meandering intros/outros? They’re gone. Every song on Dream Walker roughly hits the 4 minute mark which fortunately means no song outstays its welcome. The brevity of most songs give them their emotional impact as listeners are no longer bludgeoned repeatedly with the same chorus over and over as has happened before (True Love). Tom’s vocals have also markedly improved this time around, sounding less nasally than ever before, they are still unmistakably his but that grating quality they often had in the past has all but disappeared. This is due mainly to the fact that the vocals aren’t always front and centre, instead they’re immersed within the music, woven into the fabric of the songs. Even lyrically the album is a more mature affair than we’ve come to expect from Tom; the fourteen year old diary excerpts about the power of love and how it can conquer all have been replaced with more understated musings on faith, death, life and, of course still, love.
However, Dream Walker’s biggest triumph is the fact that the band finally manage to marry the rock music of Tom’s Blink years with the electronics of We Don’t Need to Whisper. This success can be attributed to the addition of Illan Rubin, who seems to have helped invigorate and inspire DeLonge. Every song on the album is interesting in its own way, thanks largely to the fact that many of these songs find AVA in uncharted territory: There’s unexpectedly deft piano on opener Teenagers & Rituals, which despite it’s awful title is a great pop song complete with some bah bah bah’s. There’s the fuzzy all out rocker Paralyzed, the bands heaviest track to date. Deliciously menacing synths turn up on Kiss with a Spell sounding like a lost 80s classic and surely would have belonged on the Drive soundtrack if this were 2011. Album closer Anomaly is a remarkably affecting acoustic track that reminds listeners that the sweet kid who worried about a first date is still there. Standout track Tunnels really encapsulates the spirit of Dream Walker in 4 minutes. AVA have at last created a U2 sized stadium anthem that still conveys vulnerability that allows listeners to relate to Tom’s call to “close your eyes, do whatever your heart commands” without balking.
Despite the various musical changes Dream Walker really feels like a culmination of everything Angels and Airwaves has been working towards since the band’s inception. The cinematic feel that has so often felt overwrought feels perfectly natural here. Make no mistake; this is undoubtedly the band’s best work to date. Even Tom seems to acknowledge this on Mercenaries’ refrain “you didn’t need to count me out.” He’s always known that even if they fall short of their colossal expectations Angels and Airwaves were capable of making an album like Dream Walker and it turns out the five album wait was worth it. Count them out now at your own risk.
