When Your Heart Stops Beating (When Your Heart Stops Beating - +44)

Member Name: rleigh

Product:	When Your Heart Stops Beating - +44
Date:	01/11/07 (90 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A couple of decent tracks

Disadvantages: The album lacks consistency, a lot of fillers are evident here

In May 2006, Tom DeLonge emerged from the 'extended hiatus' of Blink 182 with new band Angels & Airwaves at his helm. His enthusiasm for the project was clear, and his ego large as he proclaimed long before release that their debut offering 'We Don't Need To Whisper' was one of the best albums ever written. When first single 'The Adventure' was released I thought he may have been onto something as this seemed to be a genuinely good song, however having listened to the album I can safely say that he really was talking rubbish. 'We Don't Need To Whisper' was quite possibly one of the most lacklustre and dull offerings of 2006, and so when old band mates Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker announced plans for the +44 album I was interested to see if they could come up with anything better. Thankfully for them, it would seem that they have done and 'When Your Heart Stops Beating' is therefore a much better offering than what we had from Mr DeLonge. Whereas after the demise of Blink 182, Tom DeLonge took the route of taking himself far too seriously and becoming a complete egotist, +44 are far more light-hearted, and although their music is at times a far cry from that of what they were producing as Blink 182; a lot of the time the tracks here sound like cast off's from Blink 182's self titled release.

'When Your Heart Stops Beating' starts off promisingly with 'Lycanthrope', a track which is fairly pacey and keeps your interest for the 4 minutes that it runs for. Although this track is pacey with strong drum beats and guitars, it's never really anything spectacular and although starts the album nicely enough it will never leave you gasping in awe of what you have just listened to, and this can actually be said of the majority of this album. Title track 'When Your Heart Stops Beating' is an extremely impressive offering and should put a smile on the face of most Mark Hoppus fans as he plays his part well here with bass and vocals coming through strongly and really making the track stand out, showing for the first time here that he does not need Tom DeLonge by his side in order to produce a memorable track. I would suggest that this is the bands finest moment on the album and other than this there are really very few tracks that stand out. The only other tracks that I would say are indeed worth a mention are those of the disco punk fun of '155 - +44', 'Make You Smile' with its dual male and female vocal assault, and the sombre tones of 'No It Isn't'.

Although not the best album you're ever likely to hear, I think that 'When Your Heart Stops Beating' is still worth a listen and if you're going to be spending your hard earned cash on something then it would most certainly be better spent on this than on Angels & Airwaves effort, that's for sure. There is still some decent pop punk on offer here, and although in my opinion in terms of quality it does not even come close to being as good as Blink 182's music was – it is by no means bad and should not be avoided purely on a basis of the disappointing sounds which came from the other camp. +44 are their own band and are more than likely here to stay, so you best get used to them.

With two not so great albums now in existence, it would seem that Blink 182 were better as a three piece than they are now that they have gone their separate ways. Together they wrote catchy pop punk anthems, whereas apart they have both failed to varying degrees with Angels and Airwaves not really appealing to me at all, and this album seeming to be consisting of a few stand out tracks and a whole lot of fillers. Although not a bad album, 'When Your Heart Stops Beating' may leave you wondering where the fun of their previous band has gone and why they now seem for the most part so depraved of excitement. I wouldn't say that this is a bad album from the band, I just don't think that they've really done as much with it as they possibly could and should have done. The title track more than proves that they are capable of writing and recording highly infectious music, however the album as a general rule does not support this idea. If the quality of tracks here was consistently as good as the title track then I think that this would have been one of the albums of 2006, however as it stands 'When Your Heart Stops Beating' will more than likely disappoint a lot of its listeners, not because it is no good but because it is not the great album which it could have been.


Label: Interscope
Release Date: 13th November 2006

Originally posted by me on my website Alt-UK.com
Source: http://www.alt-uk.com/modules.php?name=Reviews& ;rop=showcontent&id=390

Summary: +44 lack the fun factor of Blink 182, a distinctly disappointing debut.