Angels & Airwaves - I-Empire
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CD Details
Artist: Angels & AirwavesEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2007-11-06
Music Label: Geffen Records
Soundtracks:
- Call To Arms
- Everything's Magic
- Breathe
- Love Like Rockets
- Sirens
- Secret Crowds
- Star Of Bethlehem
- True Love
- Lifeline
- Jumping Rooftops
- Rite Of Spring
- Heaven
Music reviews of I-Empire
Music Review: Much faster and more enjoyable than the first CD but unfortunately lacking its freshness
Rating: 3 Stars
Angels and Airwaves was a band that was created by former Blink 182 singer/guitarist Tom Delonge and his ambition to create something truly different was very admirable. The band's debut CD, We Don't Need to Whisper, was a very good CD and that unfortunately suffered from a bit of a slow pace and some weak lyrics. But still, it was a great start and I was very interested to see the band's follow up CD, I-Empire. I-Empire (called by Tom "the "part 2" to We Don't Need to Whisper) is a much faster CD that's a lot more accessible and easier to like. The music on here is really uplifting, and it's perfect music for playing VERY loud, especially on a nice sound system or while driving fast in a car. It's definitely a much better CD than the 1st effort. That said, though, it still suffers from some of the flaws of We Don't Need to Whisper; the lyrics have not improved; in fact, they've gotten even a bit worse. I think Tom needs a new approach to his lyric writing for this band; I thought it was weird during their first CD that the music is this futuristic, very "epic and different" in style, and presented itself as a grandoise and epic masterpiece...yet the songs were about "your best friend is not your girlfriend" ...it didn't work. I-Empire's faster music fits its lyrics a lot better, but unfortunately, the lyrics on here are often extremely corny, and almost every single song's a love song. I really wish Tom would try to sing about something else, as his "I love you, you make me feel alive" lyrics really started to get old for me on this CD. Blink 182's self-titled final CD featured some excellent lyrics and the songs showed real variety in their subject matter; Angels and Airwaves is about love, that's it. Only a couple tracks on this CD seem to deviate from that. That aside, though, this CD shows much more variety in the songs and much more exciting music and it easily makes it a more fun listen.
Call to Arms; 7/10. A very cool start to the CD. Some nice lyrics and a catchy chorus. A good song.
Everything's Magic; 7/10. Another good song, a very fast-paced and fun song; the lead single. Features great music that sounds a bit like Blink 182's Anthem Part 2. The chorus isn't too great, though.
Breathe; 8/10; A very nice song musically. The first slow song on the CD yet it's not unbearably slow. It's a little repetative lyrically, (he says "I love you" over 16 times in it,) but it's a really nice and ambient song. Well-done.
Love Like Rockets; 7/10; Although the subject matter of the song's a little stupid when you think about it, it's a cool-sounding and "different" song with a pretty cool chorus. The song's got a cool space-like theme to it. The "imagine" line's pretty cool. Overall, it works. Has a cool, powerful ending, too.
Sirens; 7/10; Took me a while to get used to this song, (the "dadadadada" lyrics got on my nerves at first,) but now it's actually pretty good. The whole song's very catchy and the verses are sung very well. Good lyrics, actually.
Secret Crowds; 6/10; This is more of a "rock song," that sounds like it'd be perfectly played in a football stadium. It's not too bad lyrically, (providing the theme for the CD; "If I had my own world, I'd build you an empire,")and the verses are pretty nice, but there's unfortunately no hook here; the big refrain of the song doesn't have any sort of tune, it just features Tom singing slower and louder. It needed more of a tune or a hook. The band obviously disagrees, though, since this is currently the planned 2nd single.
Star of Bethlehem; 7/10; When Angels and Airwaves first played this song live, it was an epic, 6-minute plus song with a very long instrumental at the beginning with the lyrics eventually kicking in at about the 3-minute mark. For the CD, the song was wisely split up; most of the long instrumental takes place in this song, while the rest of the song kicks in on the next track, True Love. This is a pretty cool instrumental, both atmospheric and fast, as well as very memorable. Goes very well with the next song.
True Love; 8/10; Another great song, with a very fast chorus and featuring the continuing instrumental from the previous song. Lyrics are pretty cool. Another song that's definitely got more of a "rock" sound to it. Well-done.
Lifeline; 3/10; Really irritating song, the only bad one on the CD. Tom's vocals on this song are horrible; he REALLY strains on it and it just sounds very forced and corny. Really bad lyrics, too. Easily the worst song on the 2 CD's. Musically it's pretty weak, too. The verses have a good tune but unfortunately Tom's strained vocals end up making the song pretty intolerable.
Jumping Rooftops; NA/10; a cool little techno intermission as we transition into the powerful final tracks on the CD.
Rite of Spring; 8/10; It's hard for me to give this an 8/10 because the lyrics are really horrible; it's too bad because it's actually very good subject matter; Tom talking about his life, with a really cool chorus and verses; overall a very catchy and really impressive song musically, but the lyrics are pretty awful. Tom tries to rhyme to really bad results, and we end up with a song that tries to rhyme "pass" with "cash" and lines like "it took about an hour to start a punk rock band, to offset my ****** up family land." Had he not tried to rhyme I think we would have ended up with a MUCH better song lyrically, but still, it's a great song and one of the most memorable on the CD.
Heaven; 10/10; An excellent end to I-Empire with the best lyrics on the CD. It starts by sampling distorted clips from past Angels and Airwaves songs, then speeds up. Very great musically, very good lyrically. Serves almost as a part 2 to the apocalyptic Valkyrie Missile from We Don't Need to Whisper and it's overall a cool closing to the story told on the band's first 2 CD's.
Overall we have here a much better and more interesting CD; Angels and Airwaves have greated a great "part 2" to their first CD that's both faster and more fun. Now that they've finished this story, though, I hope their next CD's something completely different entirely, especially in the lyrical department. I'd like to see this band sing about some different subjects at some point. Easily recommended for anyone who'se ever been a fan of Tom's work in the past of if you like this "stadium rock" genre.
That said, I have to end this review on a negative note. After listening to the recently released "In Defense of the Genre" CD by rock band Say Anything, I've gotta say that THIS is a band whose lyrics are real, whose lyrics are true to life and whose lyrics are layered and very deep, and whose lyrics really mean something to the band. Tom Delonge's lyrics for Angels and Airwaves, on the other hand, are so far removed from any type of reality and are so formulaic and so cliche'd that it gives his songs the depth of a shallow pool...it's like listening to the boy bands of the 1990's again....yeesh. He just seems unwilling (or unable) to stretch himself at all in this category and it was such a step down on this CD from Whisper, which was itself a step down from where Blink left off from on their excellent final CD. The lack of emotional weight on these songs and true hooks ended up making the CD fairly forgettable. It's a better CD than We Don't Need to Whisper, it's definitely more fun to listen to and is much more exciting, but it's really just more of the same and it therefore lacks any innovation; we've heard it all before. I liked Rite of Spring a lot because despite its horrible lyrics, it was nice to hear Tom finally sing about something that was obviously real life. Despite the 3-star rating, Angels and Airwaves fans SHOULD definitely check it out and it's definitely a very good CD but don't expect it to remain in your CD players for long....It is an improvement over Whisper, but just not nearly as memorable. Here's hoping the band switches gears with their next CD.
Description of I-Empire
Angels & Airwaves first single "Everything's Magic," is a synth-rock anthem that resonates with a refreshing spirit and inspired energy. "Just sit back and hold on tight," sings Tom DeLonge in the song, offering sound advice for the entire album.Angels & Airwaves is former blink-182 & Box Car Racer guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge, Offspring drummer Atom Willard, David Kennedy notably from Hazen Street and Box Car Racer and now former 30 Seconds to Mars bassist Matt Wachter. (Bassist Ryan Sinn, formerly of The Distillers, departed from the band earlier this year).
I-Empire, Angels & Airwaves second album was written and produced by Tom DeLonge.
Released only two years after Blink-182 announced its indefinite hiatus, the second album by singer-guitarist Tom DeLonge's other band, Angels & Airwaves, makes it feel like a lifetime. There's not a single poop joke or bubblegum punk anthem to be found among the grand themes of I-Empire, an album that finds the shrill frontman grappling with politics, paranoia, and the spiritual world. Unlike the contributions to his former group's last self-titled release, however, DeLonge has finally realized that getting mature doesn't mean getting boring. For all its cathartic lyrics, I-Empire is actually packed with dazzling, fast-moving songs, like "Everything's Magic" and "Sirens," that bring together U2's widescreen guitar flights with tuneful, straightforward punk melodies. This could very well be his best work yet.--Aidin Vaziri
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