Having spent his earlier years singing about fucking dogs and inspiring a swathe of horrible bands, Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge finally accepted maturity in 2005 with Angels & Airwaves. Dropping the safe rebellion of pop-punk, DeLonge has now immersed himself completely in alternative rock.
For the most part, this album sounds like a middle-of-the-road amalgam of Radiohead and U2, with DeLonge’s bubblegum Californian vocals on top. Sore-thumb standouts like ‘Paralyzed’ and ‘The Wolfpack’ are the most fully-formed songs here, compounding well Radiohead’s electronic ambience with U2’s (and Blink’s) well-known expertise in producing catchy arena material.
However, the songs on The Dream Walker seem to have been cut too closely from the same cloth. Considering DeLonge’s stated influences (he also mentions Pink Floyd), this album disappointingly doesn’t take any terribly interesting turns. Probably the most interesting thing about The Dream Walker is that it’s a full-on concept album, the spearhead of an artistic project featuring a novel, a comic book series and an animated short film.
DeLonge deserves a pat on the back for self-funding this artistic vision, but his album doesn’t display the ambition to match.
3/5.
The Dream Walkeris out Tuesday December 9 through To The Stars.
