What do you get when you take a vocalist from Blink 182, a bass player from 30 seconds to Mars, the drummer from the Offspring, and the guitarist from hardcore group Over My Dead Body? Probably not what you’d expect.Tom Delonge generated the band name, Angels and Airwaves, from his daughter’s name, Ava (he inverts the A in ‘And’ to get a V). Subsequently, there are a lot of sounds and lyrics inspired by his daughter. I don’t typically listen to music for beauty, but this is probably as beautiful as you’ll get from one of my selections.
I wanted to try and find something more suitable to Laura’s pallet. I thought perhaps something related to Blink 182 would be a good start.
AVA is easily my favorite Blink 182 related side project over Box Car Racer, +44, and Aquabats. Their debut album ‘We Don’t Need to Whisper’ came over a little like the Broadcast album where each track ran into the previous one. What saved AVA for me was the single ‘The Adventure’ off that album which has been featured in several commercials and sporting events. When I-Empire came out, that song alone gave me the confidence in checking out their sophomore effort and I was pleasantly surprised.
There is a lot more variety and relatable song topics on this album. I enjoy the album from top to bottom, but like ‘Sirens’ and ‘Hallucinations’ the best. Their third album, 2010’s Love, didn’t do as well for me, but may still be worth checking out if you enjoy this selection.
Suggested Listening;
I-Empire (2007)
Thanks for picking this Thomas – I’ve always meant to check out these guys’ side projects, what with my obsession with Blink 182 in high school, and never got around to it on my own.
ReplyDeleteTom was always my second favorite of the three, but that’s only because Mark was hot and Tom was a little weird looking. In reality, I preferred Tom musically. While that didn’t mean much in high school, more stock can be put it the statement now.
I was actually quite impressed with “I-Empire.” From the first track, I knew this definitely would be something I could listen to on a regular basis. 1- You’ve got Tom’s unique voice. 2- Most of the songs are high energy and fun. 3- You’ve still got that familiar spark, yet the new songs can stand on their own.
With “Breathe,” I started to lose interest a little. I like that the entire album doesn’t sound exactly the same, but I just don’t associate Tom’s voice with ballads. It did grow on me after repeat listens, but it just didn’t do much for me overall.
My favorite tracks were “Call to Arms” and “Everything’s Magic” (maybe the initial excitement when I began listening to the album stuck with me on these tracks), “True Love” (although the songs start running together – literally – at this point, which I found interesting. Actually I’m kind of curious as to why they chose to go that direction with a few tracks when they didn’t with the entire album…) and “Rite of Spring” (for the awesome guitar riff, and because it sounds like a Blink song for me).
Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t just enjoy this week because of its connection to Blink 182, although it’s hard not to sound like Blink 182 with Tom Delonge singing lead – I think the band sounds great in its own right.
I think I enjoyed this much more than Thomas’ usual picks because they’re not as heavy sounding, and mostly because of the vocalist. With me, vocals mean a whole lot. Here, there’s no screaming or whining, just a familiar voice that reminds me of happy days gone by. Thanks for this week – you were aiming for something up my alley and you did a good job Thomas.
P.S. How pumped am I that Blink 182 is back together? I can't believe I forgot to bring that up in my comment... I'd love to see them at Bonnaroo
ReplyDelete“Call to Arms” starts off being reminiscent of a U2 track. The unique guitar sound that U2 has transcends through this song. I think it starts the album off on a good note, in that it has a very prominent intro and really kind of shows how this band is trying to differentiate itself from Blink 182. “Everything’s Magic” does not impress me much. It kind of sounds generic, and I find myself wanting to get onto the next track. “Breathe” is a nice song, and although it is weird to hear Tom sing more of a ballad I think he handles it quite well. “Sirens” is my favorite track on the album. I know that this is Thomas’s favorite track as well, so that could have something to do with why I like it so much is because it makes me think of him. If you listen to the lyrics though I really like the message and it is easy to relate to as it refers to that feeling you have over your first love, and all the nervous quirks that come along with it. “True Love” has an extremely long intro and I was starting to wonder if it was just an instrumental song. Once the song gets started I like the energy and think Tom’s voice sounds almost soothing on this track. The rest of the album, as Laura said kind of all flows together. Each track sounds somewhat similar to the last thus you kind of lose yourself.
ReplyDeleteOverall I think the album is pretty good, and that while it never lost my interest I actually prefer Tom doing more of the Blink 182/punk vibe. With tracks like “Sirens” and “the Adventure” from their previous efforts they definitely have the talent to keep putting out more records that would render me interested to see what new sounds they can come up with.
Actually, if you listen closely, the end of the album doesn't just flow - it's actually like one track. Listen to the end of one song into the next - it's not accidental like the songs are boring. It's totally intentional. I'm just wondering why they chose to do that with only part of the album and not with the other half. Any ideas?
ReplyDeleteThat square behind my first comment is supposed to be a smiley, btw.
ReplyDeleteFor me, Tom Delonge’s most fitting musical canvas is creating juvenile, catchy, pop-punk songs with Blink 182 comrades Mark and Travis. After listening to I-Empire, those feelings were only strengthened. The music Angels & Airwaves are creating is not meant for the ears of this 31 year-old dude. It’s not their fault, I’m just not their demographic.
ReplyDeleteIt’s weird because I still love the song “Josie” and the album Dude Ranch from Blink, I guess there is a youthful nostalgia that accompanies it. Tom’s voice is always reaching; his vocals lack any sort of ease, and I find my stomach muscles tightening up when I listen to him as if I’m trying to squeeze the notes out too. Maybe I’m used to Tom in the more abbreviated punk music format, but these songs come of extremely long. I put A&A in the same category that Weezer finds themselves in now, guys in their mid to late 30’s trying to still make music that connects with teens and it comes off creepy to me.
I’m sorry I’m coming off all negative, but these are my honest opinions and I would expect everyone else to be as candid if they didn’t like my pick. I’ve waited so long to write this because I’ve listened to this album probably 4 different times, hoping maybe I’d find something with just another listen, but no luck. I honestly gave them a shot Thomas, and I would also like to say that Thomas consistently surprises me pleasantly with his picks, not so much with A&A.
I like Blink-182 as much as the next guy our age. I was always more of a fan of Mark Hoppus, but Tom Delonge had his great songs (like "Voyeur", especially), and he always had a voice that fit their type of pop-punk very well. Unfortunately, Angels & Airwaves just did absolutely nothing for me. I read Justin's write-up on the album, and he perfectly stated basically everything that I was feeling the times that I listened to this album. When coupled with some things I read about Tom claiming that this album would change music, and that A&A were the greatest rock band in the last 20 years, I really just had a lot of trouble getting into the album at all, this week. Tom really just sounds as if he's trying to be something he's not, vocally, and I'm having trouble trying to figure out what his inspiration might have been. I can understand that he probably felt the need to grow up after the juvenilia that was Blink-182, but I really think that he went too far. His charm always went hand in hand with his sense of humor, and it's entirely absent on this album.
ReplyDeleteI can appreciate that Thomas, Laura, and many many others enjoy this band, but they're just not for me. The one positive was that it made me really want to listen to 'Dude Ranch', so I've done that a few times, and I still love it. Like Justin said, Thomas has had many picks that I've really enjoyed, and will have many more that I like as well, but regretfully, this wasn't one of them.
(I'm going to take a break from giving album ratings, for a while. It's caused me to delay writing about the albums way longer than I should have, and with work and school full time, it requires more time than I have, right now. Hopefully I can return to that over the summer, when things are less hectic.)
Big J, why did you post twice?
ReplyDelete