Disclaimer: I am not a professional critic. This review is solely based on my own opinions.

I’ll start right off the top by admitting I’m a Blink fan first, a Plus 44 fan second and an AvA fan third. After catching wind of Tom DeLonge’s mastermind free album download, I became an instant skeptic to the word “free.” With much surprise I was caught off guard when Modlife actually allowed me to freely download all eleven tracks (paying only for a bonus Hoppus remix). None the less, a free AvA album sits right in tandem with DeLonge’s view on the music industry and his attempt to change it. Whether or not he has been successful at doing so is debatable.

As I burned my free copy of LOVE, I was struck with a feeling of hope that this could be the AvA album that refreshes my opinion of their music. Settling behind my steering wheel, I replaced The Offspring’s Americana (ironic) with AvA’s third attempt. As the first track faded in with a typical-confused-crawling-intro, I felt my hope dim and knew I would have to force myself to keep focus on the music.

What’s unfortunate is that AvA’s follow-up to I-Empire refuses to take hold of any theme such as found on We Don’t Need To Whisper. I felt bombarded by a mix of different genres, all seemingly fit into lengthy, run-in songs which were unwillingly forced to match AvA’s own style. There are songs that would fit better into albums of surf rock, punk rock and even pop. DeLonge leads the band with an overuse of effects, synthesizers and auto-tune that might cause a song to suffer more than the listener. However, it is necessary to point out that these effects really light up on a hi-fi stereo. Because the album is mastered to match the loudness war there is not a great range of dynamics provided between soft and loud passages which leaves me wondering if the music could benefit from less processing. However, even with an array of different effects there is a significant lack of energy that fails to keep the song entertaining.

DeLonge’s Angels & Airwaves is truly a LOVE or hate band. I’ve never easily written off their music, but there isn’t much about it that impresses me other than how well it matches visuals as more or less ambient noise (and I don’t mean the soon to be AvA film). Perhaps there is merit in the lyrics, but to understand such a message means interpreting what you can through an assortment of unruly reverb and delay. The bottom line is that AvA might be a self-fulfilling legacy for Tom DeLonge, but Blink is still together for the kids.