Geffen Records
2007
I-Empire
About This Album
If Tom DeLonge is anything, he's a man of conviction. He holds onto his beliefs long after other men would abandon them, cherishing them with the obstinate fervor of a teenager even though he's long past adolescence. Others would have buckled at the lukewarm, occasionally mocking reception of his post-blink-182 project Angels & Airwaves and their 2006 debut, We Don't Need to Whisper, but instead of revamping the group for their quickly recorded sophomore effort, I-Empire -- who knows whether the title is either a pun on Apple's iCulture or a reflection of DeLonge's never-ending quest of self-improvement -- he digs in his heels, refusing to budge from his oddly misconstrued Cure and U2 amalgam. The basic sound of A&A may be the same, but there are some notable, albeit minor, differences this time around. First of all, not every song takes a minute to get off the ground, but the greater improvement is that DeLonge no longer shuns his knack for naggingly catchy, sing-song hooks, which makes I-Empire immediate where We Don't Need to Whisper was elusive. It's a welcome change of pace but more of a lateral move than a step forward, as these pop inclinations aren't integrated into the band; they're merely grafted upon A&A's spacy murk.
Track List (try tracks 1,3,4,5,6,8 and 12)

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