Angels & Airwaves

For his second album leading Angels and Airwaves, ex-blink-182 bassist/singer Tom Delonge substitutes the snotty, sad-punk-at-the-mall attitude for the Cure's epic longing; and he's swapped blink's saccharine hooks for chiming, arena-ready guitars ripped straight from U2's Joshua Tree. It's a tricky formula, somewhat hindered by his class-clown past. But when it works, AVA (as they are called by "the kids") give emo's catharsis a sense of larger-than-life importance.

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 &#8212 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 chor... More >