Angels & Airwaves

Love

Written by: PP on 27/02/2010 20:02:39

The third album of the megalomaniac Tom Delonge project Angels And Airwaves, "Love", continues the band's descent from space station level down towards earth where us normal people are staying. Only people who've heard the previous two A&A albums will of course understand what that means, but basically, Tom's band have again halved the amount of nothing-saying emptiness plaguing their music in favour of some actual content. Kudos, but still not good enough I'm afraid, as songs like the opening intro "Et Ducit Mundum Per Luce" are more suited for a grandiose opening ceremony at the Winter Olympics (actually, the song bears lot of resemblance to the song used in Vancouver). The six minute "The Flight Of Apollo" doesn't offer much change either with its floaty electronics and vocals faded to the distance, that is, until the guitars crash in and the stratospheric atmosphere drops like a rock at terminal velocity to a self-titled Blink 182 level or so. Now we're talking. Dreamy electronics still echo high on the background, but Tom's voice and the guitars don't sound ridiculously inflated anymore. Or maybe I'm just getting used to him, who knows, but it's definitely another step in the right direction.

The optimistic, joyously vibrating floaty sound remains largely unchanged as a whole, however, despite a couple of solid rock riffs. Lead single "Young London" is probably the best song on the album, even if its lead riff is a direct rip off from a mildly famous song, which is later recycled again on "Letters To God Pt. 2" in a slightly different-sounding format. Lawsuit pending? I'd like to imagine so, even if "Love" was released gratis on the internet. "Epic Holiday" is basically like any other A&A track; a dreamy, cinematic, synthesizer-heavy track that in all honesty just goes nowhere. At least "Hallucinations", one of the stronger tracks on the release, has a great chorus that sticks out from the album, but whereas few people found the band's previous output worth becoming a fan over, at least now the band should find a new fanbase in those who liked the new, equally (or perhaps even more so) ambitious 30 Seconds To Mars album.

One of the things I feel has changed slightly is Tom's voice, which has either improved or they've made some very different production decisions, because he now sounds much stronger and more convincing than before. "Shove", for instance could've been a track on "I-Empire" if it wasn't for Tom's better singing and a good chorus. The full-on electronica tracks like "Clever Love" are also a new addition to the band's arsenal, but I can't say I'm a fan. So while the album is arguably the best Angels And Airwaves album so far, it continues to suffer from the same recurring problems as every song by the band thus far. One, Tom's vocals, even if they are better this time around, still follow the exact same format every single song, making it difficult to distinguish the choruses from one another. Two, the second half of "Love" is still full of unnecessary air and space-rock instrumentation, one of the reasons why the songs are 4+ minutes long instead of just 2-3 minutes. Three, there are too few standout tracks. "Hallucinations", "Young London", and "Epic Holiday" can't carry the entire album. Final opinion? Still meh.

Download: Young London, Hallucinations
For the fans of: 30 Seconds To Mars, Blink 182
Listen: Myspace

Release date 14.02.2010
Geffen

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