Angels & Airwaves - Love Review

Posted by Aaron Titan on 02.22.2010

Tom DeLonge gives some free love before turning his attention to the new blink-182 reunion album. Is it a free steal or did we even want it given away to us the begin with?






Tracklisting
1. "Et Ducit Mundum Per Luce"
2. "The Flight of Apollo"
3. "Young London"
4. "Shove"
5. "Epic Holiday"
6. "Hallucinations"
7. "The Moon-Atomic (...Fragments and Fictions)"
8. "Clever Love"
9. "Soul Survivor (...2012)"
10. "Letters to God, Part II"
11. "Some Origins of Fire"

The Players
Tom DeLonge – Vocals, guitar
Matt Wachter – Bass, keyboard, synthesizer, backing vocals
David Kennedy – guitar, keyboard, synthesizer
Atom Willard – Drums, percussion

The Album
Let me preface this by saying that I listened to Love with a half-clean slate. I’ve never listened to an Angels & Airwaves album before, so all I had to go off of for this band was my impression of them as a serious, 80s-sounding stadium rock band with a lot of synth thrown in for good measure. What I did have to go off of was my appreciation for Blink-182, that other band that A&A frontman Tom DeLonge was in.

I kind of had a “fuck A&A” attitude until now, because after Blink made what I feel was their greatest album (2003’s self-titled album), Tom kind of bailed on the band to focus his full attention on his new, super serious, greatest band in rock n’ roll project. I’ve since gotten over my A&A aversion thanks to the Blink reunion and the fact that I acquired Angels and Airwaves’ newest album Love for free, legally. They are giving it away for free online, though you can contribute some money if you want, which’ll get you a remixed track from the album done by Mark Hoppus. You can download the album right here.

Now, how exactly was the free listening experience?

It was so-so. The main thing I can say about this album was that it just doesn’t have enough there to keep me interested from front to back. I wouldn’t call Love a boring album, just not incredibly exciting. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s some good shit on here. I love the intro "Et Ducit Mundum Per Luce" and how it flows seamlessly into the churning, vocal driven “The Flight of Apollo.” Tom Delonge sounds incredibly convincing here as he does when the album again transitions smoothly into another anthemic, popping rocker “Young London.”

Now, after those first three awesome tracks, the album loses steam, and fast. Track by track, the pace slows down, which is fine, but it never really picks up again. Tracks like “Shove” and “The Moon Atomic (…Fragments and Fictions)” are slow, similar-sounding, and are just too bleeding-hearty for my taste. A few songs like this would have been fine, but not a barrage of reworked repetitions of them. It just doesn’t make sense to me to start out with as much conviction and power as A&A do and kind of decelerate for the majority/remainder of the album.

Tom DeLonge sounds like a shell of his former, attention-grabbing self here too. It’s almost like the dude got old and forgot how to have fun. I totally get that A&A is a completely different project and sound than Blink-182, and really, it should be. Otherwise, why not play with those guys to begin with, right? It’s just that DeLonge never really explores his vocal range and stays limited to the same lower-pitched sound track after track after track. Maybe it was a conscious decision in order to maintain a certain ambiance for the album’s duration, but I just wasn’t thrilled.

In the end, I walked away with the feeling of having downloaded an album that has a few gems and a large serving of filler. My sentiment towards A&A isn't’t really lowered though. In fact, I think it’s cool that they gave the album away – on Valentine’s Day of all days to boot. It opens them up to a larger audience and endears them to music fans like myself for being cool enough to release their stuff freely. I guess I just didn’t end up feeling like I got a steal of a deal by getting Love for free. There’s a few good cuts, but nothing to write home about. Maybe they gave it away so people would still listen to it?

The 411: Love starts out really well, but doesn't carry that flag for the duration of the album. The sub par tracks outnumbered the good ones in a big way. I can't imagine seeing this band live and walking out thinking I had a "fun" experience. I miss the Tom DeLonge who didn't take himself too seriously and hopefully he'll come back on the new Blink record. I hear they're making a movie to go along with this album, so hopefully they throw a lot of action sequences and explosions in there, otherwise the film version will be just as boring as the music version. At least the album was free, right?

Final Score:  5.0   [ Not So Good ]