Angels and Airheads

Although a self-confessed Angels and Airwaves fan myself, I'm finding it hard to share the unshaking belief in the upcoming 'I-Empire' that Tom DeLonge seems to be clinging onto so dearly. It could be the unwavering egoism and pretentiousness of the band itself that's causing me to have my doubts about the new album, or it could be the fact that their debut 'We Don't Need To Whisper' failed to deliver the goods in CD sales and originality and thus broke the former Blink-182 frontman's promise of it being 'the infinite potential of the human being'.
Self-delusion aside, Tom has indeed worked hard to shed the stigma of being 'that guy from Blink' and establish himself and his band as a new force in rock and roll with an epic, stadium sound remeniscent of power ballad bands of the early 90's, though his work falls short of achieving anything beyond self-centred mediocrity.
'We Don't Need To Whisper' was a plethora of anthemic rock tunes that was a world apart from Tom's early days of toilet humour 3 chord wonders in his parent's garage and did manage to establish a small and dedicated cult following of die-hard fans who welcomed the 'Grown upTom', though as regards blowing away the competition, AvA barely managed to make it onto the RADAR screen and was universally panned by critics.
So, having seemingly learned his lesson, Tom has promised us a second album full of the same conceptual, psuedo-spiritual humanist lyrical nonesense, but with a more stripped down production rooted in raw sound rather than flooding each song with overdoing of reverb, delay and echo effects which seemed to hold their debut album down by the ankles and gave it that pretentious edge.
From what we have heard and what has been leaked so far, Tom seems to have made good on his promise with 'Everything's Magic' and 'Secret Crowds'. Still crammed full of the zen drivvel that DeLonge is pedalling as a neo-Jesus figure in modern music, the tracks DO deliver a more bare sound but retaining a catchy tune and decent rhythm.
With barely 24 hours to go before 'I-Empire' is released in the USA, fans and critics alike are waiting fratnically to get their hands on the record to see if Tom has done us proud this time roud, or again has failed by pushing too much thinking into AvA as a 'concept' and not as a standalone band.
In my honest opinion, if Tom lost the new age poppycock that diluted his songs way too much and found some happy medium between his anthemic direction and his earlier ventures of punk rock, he might just be onto a winner.

Everything's Magic Music Video