Track Listing

1. Lycanthrope
2. Baby Come On
3. When Your Heart Stops Beating
4. Little Death
5. 155
6. Lillian
7. Cliffdiving
8. Interlude
9. Weatherman
10. No, It Isn't
11. Make You Smile
12. Chapter 13

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23956 in Music
• Released on: 2006-11-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics

Amazon.com
A few years ago, it would have been impossible to imagine the members of Blink 182 occupied with anything that didn't involve poop jokes and pixilated private parts. Now Tom DeLonge is channeling early U2 with Angels and Airwaves while former bandmates Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker have reunited as +44, another numerical band named after the international calling code for the United Kingdom. The twitchy punk rhythms, adolescent accented vocals, and blockbuster choruses of their former outfit remain, as does producer Jerry Finn, but songs like "Baby Come On" and the spooky "Little Death" show the musicians finally delivering the substance that was promised on Blink 182's self-titled 2003 release. "A little death makes life more meaningful," Hoppus sings on that latter. --Aidin Vaziri

Customer Reviews

Finally
Mark and Travis have continued the Blink legacy. Though I miss Tom's voice on some tracks, I can easily have seen this album as a followup to the self titled last Blink 182 album. Though it has the fun punk-pop songs I love, it also has some maturity and experimentation. I like this much more than the Angels and Airwaves album which seemed so far removed from the Blink sound which I will always be a fan. Though I would have made Lycanthrope the first single, When Your Heart Stops Beating is a good up tempo song as well. If you purchase the album over at iTunes they include a bonus song which is just an acoustic very of "Baby, Come On". Pick this one up.

No, It Isn't
The first song I heard by +44 was "No, It Isn't." That's fitting, because when I heard "When Your Heart Stops Beating" my first thought was "so this is what blink would've sounded like had they not broken up." Upon hearing the album, my first thought is a response to the former: "No, it isn't." Granted, some songs like "Cliffdiving," "155," and "When Your Heart Stops Beating" sound like they could've been taken off of what would've been blink-182's seventh full-length album. Putting that idea aside and focusing on the album as a whole, +44 have created a beautiful debut album which is both familiar and unique at the same time. Stealing a line from "Baby Come On," "Isn't there something familiar about me? The past is only the future with the lights turned on." I think one of the best songs on the album is "Make You Smile," which sounds like it could've been a b-side to Death Cab For Cutie's Transatlanticism. Another band that this album really brings to mind is Motion City Soundtrack, having a similar guitar style and the same steady beats. So to those of you who were hoping this would be blink-182 without Tom, then congratulations: Mark and Travis will not disappoint. And for those who wanted something new: listen to "Weatherman" and "Little Death" and tell me that Mark isn't broadening his horizons.

And for the record, I loved Angels and Airwaves album as well. So I'm not picking sides.

Not Quite Blink
+44's debut is worth your time and money. I was heartbroken when Tom left Blink 182, I always liked Blink a lot. +44 is definitely not Blink without Tom, Mark and Travis have gone in a different direction. However, it is a direction worth exploring. +44 is more lyrically driven with Mark's husky vocals highlighted. Travis is, as always, technically spectacular - the drumming is tight as ever. +44 isn't going to knock your socks off, you're not gonna rock out, the tunes are still pulsing punk, but they're softer. Stand out tracks are:

When Your Heart Stops Beating
155
No It Isn't
Make You Smile

After a few days of listening to the album I also really like:

Baby Come On
Lilian
Clifdiving
Chapter 13

That's eight solid tracks. Check this album out, support Mark and Travis.