Growing up was never going to be an easy thing for Blink-182's Tom DeLonge to handle. This California brat was always comfortable in his tattooed skin and never thought twice about singing "It would be nice to have a blowjob from your mom." Yet life post 9/11 has been a constant up hill battle to come to terms with his inner punk urchin yet fulfill his desire to emulate The Cure (ie: mature).
First there was Box Car Racer, a now defunct band that only served the purpose to make money off of Blink b-sides. You mean you can play octave chords on an acoustic guitar? Impressive. Then there was 2003's Blink-182, perhaps the closest DeLonge ever came to balancing his punk roots and his budding knack for genuine songwriting - but then Blink called it quits leaving DeLonge holding the bag.
Enter Angels & Airwaves - his long running experiment in electro pop goodness and U2 sensibilities. Gone are the patented hollowed out octave chords (sort of) and upbeat drums fills of DeLonge's past. AVA's songs are built around swirling synth loops, echoing guitar licks, sing along choruses all topped off with three concept albums that follow a loose story line that only DeLonge understands.
Love is being offered as a free download from the band's website. It comes digitally wrapped in that "new age media" smell which is designed to make you think this album somehow deviates from the band's previous efforts. While there are glimpses of solid attempts at making something passable, Love continues AVA's legacy of self aware muddled emo pop.
DeLonge's nasaly tone is given a make over with more bottom added to his voice. While his intention is make him sound like the 34 year old that he is, the results come off like a congested 18 year old singing to his prom date. Just picture Bono or Robert Smith with H1N1 and you'll get what I'm saying.
Almost every song on the album is built from the same blueprint. Opening synth patterns lift the music for a floating effect. Drums, another synth or an Edge-tastic guitar riff keep building the song up and up until DeLonge takes it over with lyrics about flying, dreaming or dreaming of flying. It's the Hot Topic equivalent of John Mayer. Music for metal heads who want to speculate on the pathos of the human condition.
The album opens with instrumental "Et Ducit Mundum Per Luce" which is Latin for "I Don't Know What This Means, But I Think It Sounds Cool". "The Flight Of Apollo" sounds like the band's best song at times, but then it goes on for another 5 minutes and uses the lyrics "predator shark". Almost 3/4 of Love is too boring and too bland to ever hope to sink in and be memorable. Just because you write songs that average a 5 minute running time doesn't mean you've grown up - it means you're probably trying too hard.
And that's always been the problem with this band. DeLonge's ambition sinks his efforts from the get go. Bigger doesn't always equal better. It only adds up to over cooked ideas and medium rare musical slush. Nothing ever grabs your attention - it slowly puts you to sleep. AVA will be playing nursing homes for Generation Y
But in all fairness there are some modest surprises to be found. "Clever Love" succeeds thanks to it's straight forward approach. DeLonge skips the extended intro and goes straight for the most honest attempt for affection he's written since Blink. "Hallucination" is one of the heavier guitar songs which helps to set it apart from the rest of this exercise in pointless emo brooding.
He wants so badly to write the next Disintegration, Joshua Tree or even the next Bleed American, but instead of focusing on just one plan of attack, DeLonge has tried to cover too many bases with too little material. It's not like this album is terrible, it's just a snooze fest.
The biggest problem with Love, and indeed all of DeLonge's music, is that it deals too much with generalities. He always does enough to just scratch the surface and leaves the rest alone. Blink-182 could get away with that. After all the TRL crowd didn't really think too much about their favorite tunes. But if you want to grow up and show that you're more than just a bunch of tattoos and power chords, you have to be willing to go the extra mile. At least Blink is back together right?
Grade: C
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