Album: Angels & Airwaves - We Don’t Need To Whisper
Tom Delonge is the man responsible for reinventing punk pop music at the turn of the century with his ex band Blink 182. With infectious snarling lyrics and his rude live antics, Tom gave the face of punk a cheeky grin, inspiring bands such as Sum 41 and Panic! At The Disco. However, fallout with Blink members Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker has resulted in Tom leaving the band and beginning a new musical venture, Angels & Airwaves.
Combining members of The Distillers, The Offspring and Box Car Racer, as well as Tom boasting this is the best music of his career, expectation for the debut album We Don’t Need To Whisper was high.
Unfortunately, this may have been misplaced optimism on Tom’s part. The 10 track album (plus 2 bonus tracks) shows a more mature side of the man once responsible for songs such as F**k a Dog and Happy Holidays You Bastards, but really, it’s a more boring side to him. The sci-fi effect in the songs can drag, along with long introductions and slow, dreamy lyrics.
The album does grow on you over several listens, with the songs The Adventure and A Little’s Enough sticking out as good tracks, and The War a more hard-hitting song, giving a war account that WWI poet Wilfred Owen would have been proud of. Tom’s voice has lost none of its unique character, the guitar riffs are epic at times (if over exaggerated slightly) and the album could be likened to that of U2, Coldplay, or more familiarly, Tom Delonge’s former band Box Car Racer.
verdict: To call this Tom Delonge’s best work ever is frankly an insult to the generation creating era of Blink 182. Angels & Airwaves are easily comparable to Box Car Racer, and Blink’s final self titled album, and Tom clearly believed it was time to move on and find a new sound. There is more to come from Angels & Airwaves, so keep searching Tom.