We Don't Need to Whisper

With Blink 182 on a break, Tom DeLonge decided to start a new band

Pop-punk… those two words never seemed particularly easy bedfellows. Before Busted and Avril Lavigne claimed the term as their own, Blink 182 were probably the biggest pop-punkers on the planet, making their name with daft little songs marked by lavatorial humor and videos in which clothes mysteriously seemed to fall off. In just over a decade with Blink 182, Tom DeLonge went from the San Diego suburbs to the top of the world. The band sold over 20 million records worldwide, won a wide assortment of MTV awards, and sold out arenas everywhere from London to Tokyo. So in early 2005, with Blink 182 on a break, DeLonge came to a crossroads. Rather than do a solo album or another version of his well-reviewed side project, Box Car Racer, DeLonge decided to start a new band, Angels And Airwaves. He recruited Box Car Racer guitarist David Kennedy, bassist Ryan Sinn (formerly of the Distillers), and drum god Atom Willard (previously of Rocket from the Crypt and the Offspring). The quartet headed into the studio – where they would try anything to find a new sound or a new song. So you'd expect a fairly impressive record: especially as Tom has boldly claimed it "is the most important album in the last twenty years." Luckily for him, We Don't Need to Whisper is pretty good.

We Don't Need To Whisper is a euphoric, inspiring listen

We Don't Need to Whisper is certainly miles away from Blink 182, being serious, intense and foreboding at times – there's a theme of life during wartime running through the album with titles like The War and Valkyrie Missile. However, DeLonge has gone out of his way to make this more life affirming than depressing. And the Edge-inspired riffs and epic intros suggest Angels And Airwaves had U2 on the stereo before their recording sessions. At its best, We Don't Need to Whisper is a euphoric, inspiring listen, as demonstrated by the excellent The Adventure. It's the sort of song that you want to play loud while driving very fast and feel glad that you're alive. Tracks like It Hurts and The War continue the anthemic feel, but Do It For Me Now, a gritty love song manages to delve a little deeper without losing tempo. The aforementioned Valkyrie Missile is another impressive moment, a slow build up featuring an organ sound before exploding into life with a guitar riff that The Edge misplaced somewhere during the recording of The Unforgettable Fire. And despite the song running for nearly 7 minutes, it never outstays its welcome. We Don't Need to Whisper comes in at just under an hour of original, well-produced and powerful rock.

You may well be pleasantly surprised by Angels And Airwaves

The name Angels And Airwaves popped into DeLonge's head while he was driving. He wasn't certain about the name at first, but then he realized that "Angels And Airwaves" abbreviated as "AAA" – and that if he inverted the middle A, it spelled AVA, which is also the name of Tom’s daughter. Angels And Airwaves unveiled themselves live on April 12, 2006, to a sold-out crowd at Pomona, CA's Glass House; their shimmering, arena-ready debut, We Don't Need to Whisper, appeared that May. A few U.K. festivals and a month long North American headlining tour followed before the band served as openers with Head Automatica for Taking Back Sunday on nationwide arena dates. While Angels And Airwaves are pretty good, don't pick up We Don't Need to Whisper expecting a revolutionary sound designed to shatter your worldview and change your life. But if you were left cold by Blink 182, then you may well be pleasantly surprised by Angels And Airwaves as they have a very different sound. Although DeLonge's vocals remain an acquired taste, he copes with the stadium rock sound very well. Sadly we doubt We Don't Need to Whisper is the most important album of the last two decades, but it's certainly one of the better ones.