The ambitious Angels & Airwaves, the supergroup led by Blink-182's Tom Delonge. A band known for their epic intros, with anthem-like choruses. From thrilling guitar riffs that take you on a ride to the powerful drums, this band is Tom Delonge's attempt to change the world and start a movement. The LOVE project (Parts 1 and 2 and the movie), truly defines what it is like to be a space rock band, a band that you get the best out of when you listen to them during the night. One album was "rushed" while the other one wasn't, and one album is clearly better than the other. What was missing in WDNTW and I-Empire was electrifying/upbeat choruses, and they clearly made up for that in LOVE.
The first track, "Flight of Apollo" led by a heavy electronic intro and chorus, with lyrics that uses great metaphors one after the next flowing right into my personal favorite, "Young London." The blink-182 influenced song with an opening guitar riff simliar to AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" that has fast, catchy verses with an unbelievable bridge/closing to the song, both instrumentally and lyrically. "Epic Holiday" might just have the most epic intro I've ever heard that has an electrifying chorus just like the lead single, "Hallucinations." "The Moon Atomic" has great build-up verses that just lead to such a disappointing/bland chorus, one of the few mistakes on the album just like "Clever Love" that has nothing special about it. The last three tracks, three very good tracks that close Part 1 with a bang, from the yodeling "Soul Survivor," to the fast-paced, excellent instrumental in "Letters to God, Part II," finishing with the hard hitting drums of "Some Origins of Fire," a song I like to call, The Adventure Part III, since they are similar in many ways.
Part II opens up with "Saturday Love," the cinematic bomb-blasting intro that just takes you away with the fast/hard hitting drums complimenting it with an incredible guitar riff, similar to "Heaven." That's just not all to the song, the verses and chorus are incredible, but lacking a weak bridge. "Surrender" led by the anthem choruses, but that is the only plus to the song as they could have done so much more with everything else to the song. The lead single on Part II, "Anxiety" is a masterpiece and the first time I heard it I really thought Part II was going to be their best album, but I was wrong. The piano-led "My Heroine" is another brilliant song with slow verses that just build-up to the 2nd half of the song that just takes you by complete surprise. Unfortunately after that song is where the album takes a turn downhill. "Dry Your Eyes" has a chorus that is exactly like "Everything's Magic," I guess Tom thought he could get away with it even though it is way too noticeable. On the bright side, "The Revelator" does have a really catchy pre-chorus with a creative drum beat from Atom. "One Last Thing" is just terrible instrumentally and who would have ever thought AVA made a song not even 3 mins long? I find that pretty weak. "Inertia" has that big intro, but it just isn't enough to hold up for the rest of the song. "Behold A Pale Horse" is my favorite though, with the 80's-influence synth that has lyrics influenced from the book of Revelations. A song that also has punchy verses to an unbelievable chorus. The closing track, "All That We Are" led by the piano, gets boring quickly when Tom says the same thing over and over again and couldn't just add more lyrics to it. However though the second half of the song led by the great guitar solo shows the band could be possibly moving in a new direction as it ends a new era and stars a new one.
Overall, Part 1 is much better than Part 2. AVA didn't go overboard with the synth in Part 1 and complimented it perfectly to each song while still being able to do what they do best with the guitars and the blasting drums. I feel like in Part 2 almost all the bridges are the same, some of the songs don't have that "epic factor" or yet alone have barely any guitar to make the songs stand out because they went overboard on the electronics. Tom though has been a very busy man the past 2 years with the LOVE project and Blink-182 so his brain could have been fried of ideas, but you can't make excuses. If AVA does go in a new direction, fans don't know what is going to hit them.
I give Part 1 a 9.5/10
I give Part 2 a 7.5/10
Listen to on Part 1 - Young London, Epic Holiday, Hallucinations
Listen to on Part 2 - Behold a Pale Horse, Saturday Love, Anxiety
Review by - Sean Graham
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