Angels and Airwaves Month(s): LOVE Part I
This record is a bit of a strange one. Firstly, it wasn't "released" in 2010 so much as it was snuck out onto the band's website to little fanfare, which was in direct contradiction to how the band had done business before. It was so out of left-field, and there was very little explanation for it.
It's also weird lyrically. As in, De Longe's writing has taken a turn for the esoteric, resulting in an acid-trip of mismatched images and half-baked analogies which left this critic wanting to go cold-turkey on anything except water.
But the weirdest thing of all? I should hate this record, but I don't. I'm even a little bit soft on it. Oh, it still has the band's usual problems, sometimes even worse, but I don't find myself reacting to it in the way I did I-Empire. I think that has a lot to do with me having worked myself into such a frothing rage over that album that I have no energy left for this one. Maybe it is that De Longe improved many of the things that caused that anger in the first place. Maybe it's both. Who knows?
What I am certain about is that this time my review will be a little bit different. I'm starting with the critic side. It's mostly because I don't want the negative aspects of this album to be the final impression. I'd actually like to defend some of it, and that defence is what I want people to have fresh in their minds at the end of the review. It's also because many of the problems I have with this album are carbon copies of the ones from Empire, so I want to keep it brief to prevent myself from sounding like a stuck record.
So let's get this all out of the way really quickly, shall we? Yes, the lazy guitar-work is still here. Tom's infatuation with this sort of stuff gets on the nerves as it is, but here it's exceptionally egregious how much he does it. Songs like "The Flight of Apollo" and "Some Origins of Fire" can sometimes sound like they've had a millstone tied around their necks and it's dragging them deep underwater. Maybe they forgot to pay their protection money. The Don is not a patient man.
Other problems which I have mentioned on numerous occasions include De Longe's pretentious lyricsim. There are times when it's clear that he has misunderstood "metaphor" as being "something so vague and unrelated to anything else that understanding what I say is less interpretation and more of a forensic investigation".
One can find examples of this in almost every song on the album. A particular sinner is the song, "Young London", which is a lyrical abomination. The song in general is just confused about what it wants to be. The verses are all seem to be spouting some philosophical nonsense on the nature of being for one thing:
I'm not the one to complain of bad dreams and slight disease
but without a life, it's all a scene with a straight directive,
And we will see how we're all connected
And we're all scared as death to die
But then in the choruses, it becomes a party anthem:
Who will awake while dying inside
 and, even more bizarrely, the bridge seems to have been hit by a blast of LSD:
They move together and dance so colourful
And kiss like flowers that breathe with pheromones
Songs get louder it feels so natural.
 For the life of me, I cannot divine this song's identity. What the hell is it? None of its constituent parts seem to relate to any of the others, and even when one looks at those parts as if they are self-contained, their logical threads seem to be tangled and knotted, with words thrown in seemingly at random, just like they were in Empire, only with far less coherence. I only make this into an issue because, when writing songs or poetry, being careless with your wording is the worst thing you can do. The very nature of the medium demands precision. You have a tiny space within which to work, so it is imperative that you do not allow any unnecessary or superfluous words or phrases into your work. If you lack this care, you waste space and cloud your meaning, making your reader or listener feel lost and detached from something which should involve and speak to them. That's the crime that De Longe commits with his writing all the time. Most of it is clutter. Very little of it is essential.
To say more than that would be to really get redundant with my repetition, so I would rather not dwell too much on that aspect of things. Where this album's weaknesses are different from that of I-Empire's is in his reaching for grand statements, but using language that is far too simplistic for the task. While interrogating topics that have depth using simple words can be successful if executed correctly, De Longe's method here does not achieve that delicate balance. It ends up sounding shallow instead of dense and tightly-packed with meaning. An example of this comes from "Letters To God Part II" (the "part II" being a reference to a song called "Letters to God" from De Longe's Boxcar Racer album). The song, as the title implies, rides on the conceit that De Longe is taking an opportunity to speak directly to God and ask some tough questions, while also sharing things he has learned since he wrote "Part I". An opportunity for real depth if ever there was one.
The problem is that he summarises these lessons in the following fashion:
And dear God, I found out the same things we learn when We die
I found out the truth is its all a big lie
I find that the words are hard to describe
I tell you Im lost here, awaiting reply
 I don't mean to pick on him so much, but De Longe doesn't help himself with writing like this. "The truth is, it's all a big lie". For goodness' sake. Even 9/11 truthers sound more convincing than that. Surely he had to have learned something more profound than that from all the many more years that he has been on this earth than I have? I'm not even really sure what he's criticising here. Government? The state system in general? The entertainment industry? Life itself? And if it's a lie, what does that mean? That we don't need governments? That the entertainment industry is built upon crooked foundations? That what society tells us the purpose of life should be is a fabrication? There are just too many possibilities because De Longe never narrows it down in his passage, so it could mean everything, which means that it means nothing.
Another culprit is "The Flight of Apollo", which intends to assure us that, as harsh as the world around us can seem to be, it isn't a completely lost case. How does the song attempt to do this?
 So life doesn't hurt so badly.
Life doesn't hurt, doesn't hurt,
Please don't look at life, look at me, so sadly.
Life doesn't hurt, doesn't hurt so badly.
  It just doesn't really carry any weight, does it? I mean, it's a nice message, but it could have been delivered a lot more pointedly than it was, should have been, even. It's the forced rhyming, that does it, really. Makes it feel a little bit sing-song, a little bit kindergarten or Sunday school, instead of the poignancy for which I am sure De Longe was reaching. I don't hate this lyric (It's actually kind of a sweet message) but I do think that it's a good example of how De Longe falls far short of the level to which he aims, and it prevents this record from being really good. Because it could be. Seriously.
There are enough examples of the lyrical shortfalls of this album to fill a thesis, if I wanted to list them all, but I'd rather move on as quickly as I can, seeing as how this "brief" section has stuck to that promise about as well as I have stuck to this whole special only lasting a month. Ahem. A thousand apologies.
The only other things that I want to point out are:
De Longe still recycles content here and there, like in "The Moon Atomic, (...Fragments and Fictions)" where he talks about bombs and stars again, making it three out of three albums in which he has spoken about them, or like in "Epic Holiday" where he uses the exact same delay technique for the lead riff as he does in I-Empire's "Everything's Magic", to the point where only the chord progression prevents it from being a photocopy of that part of the song. This wouldn't be so bad if the song weren't so limp and forgettable, because if it were memorable then I could write it off as a minor gripe and leave it at that. As it is, the most memorable part of the whole song is the fact that it sounds a lot like another one, which is pretty pathetic. And, of course, those infamous stars make a return every now and then, but I don't feel like detailing that too much because I've said my piece about that.
The last point I will make on this side of things is the production and synths. This album is absolutely drowning in synths. They are everywhere, cluttering up the project like an artist who has tried to fit something into every millimetre of a painting. There is no empty space in this album at all, and sometimes having a bit of room to breathe isn't all that bad of a thing in music. The flip-side to that, however, is that this record has a really full sound and, I think, a much better level of production than I-Empire. That record felt flat and tinny, like those soda cans that you squashed as a child. This one is way more dispersed, with a bit more weight and bass to it, so I prefer it.
What I really want to talk about is the positive stuff, because there is a hell of a lot more of it on this record than there was on the previous one.
For one thing, this album is a lot less conflicted in its sound than empire was. In fact, it's quite well synergised. Part of this, I feel, comes from the album's tempo. It's slowed down compared to the other two records, and that actually plays into De Longe's favour because he is no longer competing with Atom Willard and Matt Wachter for the soul of the record's sound. They end up working together because they are all at the same tempo, which makes this album much more palatable to the ears. Sometimes, they even achieve something really cool, like the unity of guitar and drums in "The Flight of Apollo", in which De Longe and Willard both hammer their instruments in tight bursts, Which is really fun to listen to. Between these bursts, Willard taps out a deft beat on the drums and De Longe steps back for a change, offering only punctuation to Willard's rhythm with strategic strums that are simple but effective.
Another example is the cutesy little number, "Shove", in which Wachter lays down one of those rolling basslines of his while Willard matches him closely with the snare drum, and again, De Longe's contribution is a light and sparkly picking of the lead guitar. All of it gels and gives the song flow, and while the chorus is a little bit weightless instrumentally, those verses are tight enough that I find the song to be one I come back to fairly often, when I'm in the mood.
I also find myself coming back to "The Moon Atomic (...Fragments and Fictions) quite a lot. Ridiculous and pretentious title aside, I think this might be my favourite song on the album. The thumping percussive synths that the band uses here sound like they've been mixed with orchestral bass drums, or maybe they're toms. I'm not altogether sure. I'm no expert. The point is, the effect that it creates sounds like a line of Cossack dancers stomping out a rhythm with their boots, and I love it (sorry, but there was no way to avoid that pun.)
This particular song highlights what I think is the major strength of this album: subtlety and/or deftness. Remember how I said that the record maybe has too much synth in it? Well, it pays off more than it doesn't, actually. The songs on LOVE Part I are never moving at a break-neck pace, so the fact that there are small touches everywhere that fill all the sonic spaces actually pays off, because things are moving slowly enough that you don't get the effect of being caught in a cluster-kerfuffle like you would if the songs were really fast.
To get back to the point at hand, this song is made of those deft touches. The aforementioned percussion is complemented by a gorgeous little guitar loop from De Longe. It's insanely simple, but man, is it ever an earworm, and it's effective to boot. All of this transitions perfectly into a chorus driven by some gentle, but persistent digital synths which sound not unlike a harp.
My favourite part of the whole song, however, is in fact the pre-chorus, which has flat-out the best-executed lyric and vocal on the entire album: "We are all that we are, so terribly sorry." I never fail to sing this line aloud. Ever. Not only does De Longe sing it with great sincerity, but it's just a rare, well-written line, using limited space effectively and conveying a nuanced meaning, that sometimes people will be offended by our very personalities, and all we can do is provide a dismissive apology and keep on keeping on. In fact, I would not be surprised this was in response to the waves of criticism laid against the band in the preceding two albums. De Longe seems to be saying that, "Hey, our music did nothing for you, and you don't like us very much. Well, sorry about that. We won't change. Cheers." Good one, De Longe. Credit where it is due. If only you had done more of that.
Another point of lyrical praise in this song is the fact that De Longe has improved his imagery quite a bit. While I produced a rant of Ebertian proportions (though it paled in comparison to the sublime prose of the late, great film critic) regarding De Longe's seeming incompetence in my Empire review, he has managed to actually create some pretty decent pictures in places. In the opening verse, he writes,
It's like the day has turned to rust
Like every dream's been sealed shut.
Like every door has closed before we've gotten out
As bullets rip the air in two from house to house.
That's not too bad. Really. I'm kind of impressed. Those first three images are all cohesive. They connect to form a picture of a situation where it seems one has failed and all options are exhausted. The last line doesn't quite work, sure, as it shatters the atmosphere so lovingly created up until that point, but it isn't horrible, so I can live with it.
Most prominently, he finally delivers on the cosmic imagery that I so desperately wanted him to provide last time. The chorus of the song is what does it:
Just blown apart by winds from stars
Granted, most of it is still crap. Have to admit that. However, I love those two lines near the end. "Blown apart by winds from stars". Where was that last time? It's a little clumsy, but at least it takes me out to the moon being ravaged by solar winds. Not sure how that would work scientifically, but it's alright. "White-dust tides", though. This is what I have wanted De Longe to do. A tight, bright, fresh metaphor. Those three words put you on the moon's surface, staring at a desert of lunar sand as it shifts about like the waves of the ocean. If poetry is language under pressure, this is an example of just that. Poetry. It's brief, but it shows that sometimes De Longe knows what writing is all about.
The last song I want to single out is "Some Origins of Fire". While I'd say that I don't care for most of the first half, there are two things that I have always liked. The first is that there is this effect on the guitar in the chorus that actually gives it a bit of genuine resonance, and even though De Longe (or Kennedy, maybe) does that "lazily strums once" thing, this time it actually works. It gives the song a slightly prog-rock kind of feel and actually fits the song's tone. It only took 3 albums to get it right. The other part I like is the outtro of the song. De Longe lays down a drifting guitar solo backed up by some mellowed-out drumming from Willard and some lovely electric violins, and without any lyrics clogging it up it makes for the best musical moment that AvA had ever had up until this point. I mean that. This showed once and for all that the band could actually be really good if they dropped singing altogether and just made instrumentals.
Now I think of it, I haven't mentioned how this album has more interludes than a full-day Harry Potter marathon. It's definitely overkill by the end of the album. Many of them do not justify their inclusion, and run for far too long. However, some of them do work. The one at the end of "Young London" is great. It has a nimble drum-loop that builds into "Shove" quite nicely. Then the one at the end of "Shove" is also enjoyable. It consists entirely of synths, blinking and resonating, just floating along at a relaxed amble of a pace. It's not concerned with going anywhere in particular, and I don't need it to. Without any bad lyrics to muck them up, they both end up being highlights, and evidence that this band really needs to lose singing altogether in order to really work.
In more general terms, I quite like "Hallucinations". The song has a bit of a bouncing rhythm that gets on my good side and the chorus has some catchy writing ("Do you believe in Hallucinations, silly dreams or imagination?"). The intro to "Letters to God Part II" is pretty neat, and "Soul Survivor" has an okay tune to it.
Recommendation: This is a much better album than I-Empire. I truly believe that. I even find it to be the most likeable Angels and Airwaves album to date. Not the best, just most likeable. There's a sincerity here that was absent before and after until The Dreamwalker, with De Longe actually wanting us to believe what he says more than in either of the preceding albums. It results in some really dopey lyrics like the choruses of "Flight of Apollo" or "Shove", but that's a sign of vulnerability on De Longe's part. Since when has he ever allowed himself to say things like "Sometimes it comes with a shove when you fall in love"? You have to give him some credit for that. It's an album that isn't trying too hard, and as a consequence it is an album that is content to be its own animal. I prefer that to an album that reaches for "The Stars" - euch - and doesn't have the gas to get there. Fans probably like this one already, but maybe non-fans could give it a shot. I'm not saying it would change your mind about this band, but it certainly should surprise you a little bit.
Rating: High-end Silver tier.
blakekathryn
2087
kianamaiart
amandla
tangentwithtanner
turnnoffyourmind
stormborns
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s