GDA | Album Reviews | Angels & Airwaves

1. Valkyrie Missile
2. Distraction
3. Do It For Me Now
4. The Adventure
5. A Little's Enough
6. The War
7. The Gift
8. It Hurts
9. Good Day
10. Start the Machine

Angels & Airwaves
We Don't Need To Whisper

Submitted by: Andy

With Blink-182 on "indefinite hiatus," the members of the band have gone their separate ways. Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker joined up with former Get The Girl member Carroll Heller to create "Plus-44," and front man Tom DeLonge called on some friends to establish a new project that would end up being called "Angels & Airwaves." Members include Atom Willard (Rocket From the Crypt, The Offspring) on drums, Ryan Sinn (The Distillers) on bass, David Kennedy (Hazen Street, Box Car Racer) on guitar, and of course Tom DeLogne (Blink-182, Box Car Racer) on vocals and guitar.

DeLonge, who has always been a huge fan of outer space and a monstrous war buff, used these as muses for most of the albums lyrical inspiration. Tom spent a lot of time listening to "the greatest songs ever" by Pink Floyd, Queen, The Police, The Cure, and U2. These are clearly reflected in the album, with a lot of guitar rock sounding like U2's work, and the correlating full-length motion picture (completely CGI) being released in synch with the album ala "The Wall" by Pink Floyd. It is allegedly based on Tom's life and correlates it with World War II. Very little is known about it at this point.

The swirling rumors of why Blink-182 broke up are many, but the obvious one is creative priority. Mark and Travis were content on building Blink-182 up and letting it evolve on it's own, but Tom wanted to make the best music in the world, and he knew he couldn't do it with Mark and Travis. Why, I don't know. Creative control, maybe. But he's publicly stated that he loves them both like brothers still, and misses them. However, the music inspired by this breakup has led to the best music Tom has ever made.

To sum up the album in one word is "rich." This is a very rich album, thick, very full. Every song has hundreds of layers and effects that make the listener feel like they're flying through the air. The full effect of the airborne-nature of the CD is best experienced through headphones in a dark room. Every song is at least 4 minutes long, and the 10-track We Don't Need To Whisper clocks in at 51 minutes exactly. Not the longest album, but every song is a blast and worth listening to over and over.

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