Recently Reviewed:

The Neighbourhood
I Love You.

Iron Man 3: Heroes Fall
Various Artists

Paramore
Paramore

When Blink-182 was just on “break” and not all the way broken up, former member Tom Delonge announced a band that he had been working with for a while called Angels and Airwaves. Although Delonge had done other projects before (Boxcar Racer) he claimed that this band was the most ambitious thing he had done as a musician. Not only that, but in interviews with Rolling Stone, MTV and who knows how many other media outlets, Delonge claimed that the music that AVA was creating would change rock music forever. Critics were on the tips of their toes as they waited to take a huge bite into AVA as well as Delonge. The release date came for “We Don’t Need to Whisper” and the critics were ready. The first listen through “We Don’t Need to Whisper”, the album is good; it’s just not that good. During the second listen through, when you can put your preconceived notions to rest, you realize how good of an album it is. The track placement is perfect, the flow from one song to the next song is almost flawless and the songs themselves are good lyrically and musically. It should be noted though that AVA is a huge leap from Blink-182 for Delonge. This is arena rock, not punk rock. One of the first things you notice is how thick the sound is. The thickness is really evident on the key tracks off of the album. The key tracks are of course the two singles- “The Adventure” and “Do It for Me Now,” but also “The Gift”, “A Little’s Enough”, and “The War.” All of those tracks are amazing and if Tom didn’t open his mouth prior to the release they would be perceived that way. This review is way overdue, but with all the hype and the disappointment it’s actually the perfect time to do it. Is this one of the greatest albums of all time? No. But, when Nirvana’s “Nevermind” and Green Day’s “Dookie” came out do you think critics everywhere said they would be two of the most defining albums of the 90’s? The answer again is no. Delonge cursed himself by being a little too brash before the album was released... What he got from the critics he probably earned. However, the bottom line with “We Don’t Need to Whisper” is that it’s a great album- one that definitely deserves your attention.