Imagine, if you can, a situation where Tom DeLonge finds himself on Stars in Their Eyes and states ”tonight Kat we're going to be late 80's U2!". Might seem a little abstract but please allow me to run with this a little further. The Edge famously has stated that part of the way he arrived at his signature guitar sound is because, when U2 were just starting out, they had very little money and when they were looking at getting a guitar effects pedal to add to their sound and they could only afford one and they figured that the delay pedal gave them the most scope. Tom DeLonge however has pots of money but for some reason it seems he's insisted on getting a delay pedal and putting delay effects on everything! 

 And that's not the worst thing about this record. Oh no dear reader. As if rehashing the Edges' 20 year old leftovers wasn't bad enough, we then have to put up with Mr DeLonge giving us serious vocals and heartfelt lyrics.....as apparently Angels And Airwaves are going to be “"the best music made in decades" as well as being "much more powerful, emotional and melodic than Box Car and Blink put together” this is where things implode quite royally I'm afraid. Tom DeLonge suffers from having what is best described as a "distinctive" voice, unfortunately this means he isn't actually conveying the gravitas or emotion he believes these songs merit, he merely puts a one dimensional nasal whine over everything, not pleasant! 

 Please don't think I enjoy this type of criticism, I really don't. I had high hopes for this project being both a long time Blink 182 fan and also having appreciated Atom Willard in various guises (from Rocket From The Crypt to The Offspring via his Special Goodness hook-up with Patrick Wilson of Weezer). This doesn't mean I can gloss over the fact that as a record this is the worst set of songs that I've encountered so far this year and I can’t find any basis to recommend this album at all (the “songs” all seem to meander aimlessly and formlessly as well) meaning that this all adds up to the worst score ever on HardRockHouse.

Let Us Know Your Views On 'We Don't Need To Whisper'

Track List

Valkyrie Missile
Distraction
Do It For Me Now
The Adventure
A Little's Enough
The War
The Gift
It Hurts
Good Day
Start The Machine
The Machine
Do It For Me Now

Line Up

Tom DeLonge - Vocals
David Kennedy - Guitars
Ryan Sinn - Bass
Atom Willard - Drums