Angels and Airwaves
I-Empire
Suretone/Geffen
{grate 2.5}

Before the release of Angels and Airwaves’ inaugural We
Don’t Need to Whisper, lead vocalist/guitarist Tom Delonge (of Blink-182 fame)
promised fans the “greatest rock-and-roll revolution for this generation.” While
such brash confidence seemed slightly delusional, Delonge did deliver a
welcomed and quite revolutionary reversal of 2006’s ubiquitous emo-band
despair, in an intoxicating ode to the promised beauty of life and love.

The revolution rages on with sequel I-Empire — though a
stagnant halt in Delonge’s evolution of basic soaring riffs and ethereal
melodies indicates he may be stuck in his pop-punk past, with structures too
repetitive to achieve any of the eerie hypnosis his matured self now strives to
achieve. The album requests an impossible amount of patience and willpower from
its listener, necessary to absorb the meandering (yet vaguely rewarding)
build-ups and interludes that pervade every dramatic track.

The same monotony that left Blink-182 in the early 2000s is
likewise this band’s greatest pitfall. Most of the group’s new songs are in
desperate need of a good pruning, and all the sweet, innocent soliloquies to
carpe diem that are so enthralling at the outset start to wear heavy by the
album’s close. The quick, compact “Everything Magic” works toward what should
be the celebratory climax of a lengthy set — “Just sit back and hold on, but
hold on tight/ Prepare for the best and the fastest ride/ And reach out your
hand and I’ll make you mine.” But the album’s peak only arrives after we’re
emotionally spent, drained of any ability to attain Delonge’s attempted musical
nirvana, instead ready to pass out and dream up a few fantasies of our own.