When Your Heart Stops Beating
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