Love By Angels & Airwaves

A lot of people believe that you have to pay for quality, and that if you get something for free it’ll be terrible. This is definitely not the case with the new Angels & Airwaves album. The eleven-track record was released on Valentine’s Day on the band’s website as a free download to anyone and everyone. It is aptly titled – Love.

The album, Angels & Airwaves’ third, is a spacey as the band has ever been, lifting listeners up and carrying them away with a succession of sonically trippy songs. Perhaps the only criticism of the Album could be that, on the whole, all these sonic trips make it sit too far above the listener. It can eventually become like you’re listening to something out in space that has no connection to your regular life at all.

There are, however, a couple of standout tracks that you’ll be repeating a lot whether they have a connection to your regular life or not. “Young London” has incendiary backing guitar that shimmers right through the song and makes it a highlight of the album – even at five minutes long, this epic modern rock tune doesn’t drag for a moment as Tom DeLonge’s vocals skip in between wicked guitar rhythms.

The first single off the album, “Hallucinations” is standard Angels & Airwaves fare, with a slow, atmospheric build-up to a fast chorus that won’t invade your space but will manage to stick in your mind for a long time after the song has ended. “Epic Holiday,” “Shove,” and “The Moon-Atomic” carry on in a similar vein, while “Clever Love” and “Flight Of The Apollo” are the spacier-sounding tunes.

The album is quite excellent, enjoyable on most fronts and available for free now at www.angels-and-airwaves.com and, should you feel loving and generous, the band will accept any donation you’re willing to give. There’s a Mark Hoppus remix in it for anyone and everyone who does decide to donate.