When Tom DeLonge, always the more emo half of Blink-182, launched Angels and Airwaves in 2005, he sacrificed all the small things for jumbo themes, important-band bombast and Eighties-sounding synths. The group’s fourth studio disc soars ever closer to the sun, with defiant nonsense about bombs falling at dancing kids' feet (lead single "Surrender") and one track inexplicably inspired by the Book of Revelation (the punchy "Behold a Pale Horse"). Want fun? Repeat lines like "The ice is really cold/The streetlights, really old" out loud. Slow builds and sly, Edge-style guitar prod these dark songs into vaguely exultant shapes. The only problem: There's nothing here to be triumphant about.  

Listen to "One Last Thing":

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“Youth Knows No Pain”

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”