Angels & Airwaves: I-Empire : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

It's no coincidence that Tom DeLonge's second Angels and Airwaves album emerges as the presidential race begins its one-year sprint to Election Day — the former singer-guitarist for Nineties doo-doo-joke punks Blink-182 is campaigning too. His quest: to follow the career path of the Beastie Boys and refashion immaturity into the Important Album. The results so far: mixed. I-Empire is full of big, faintly Eighties-sounding chiming choruses and arms-outstretched melodies, and DeLonge deploys the signposts of significance all over, from the martial drumbeats of the album opener, "Call to Arms," to the unmistakably Edge-y riff of the closer, "Heaven." It works, sometimes. "Call to Arms" tingles with anticipation and a catchy high-pitched vocal that's less appealing the next three times DeLonge repeats nearly the same four-note melody ("Everything's Magic," "Sirens," "Secret Crowds"). In Blink, cheesy yearbook-scrawl lyrics like "Did I tell you I love you?" were balanced by bratty guitar. Set off by poppy, twinkling synth rock here, they're painfully earnest. It all sounds like the soundtrack to a last-party-of-the-summer-bro! flick. Now-thirtysomething DeLonge's disarming voice still sounds like it's coming from the throat of a teenager, which may be his biggest hurdle to achieving world domination.