+44 – When Your Heart Stops Beating

If you ask any of my friends they will say I have a weird memory for dates (I still remember the exact dates of 95% of the concerts I’ve ever been to), and February 22nd 2005 is a date I will remember for a very long time for two reasons. The first and more prominent reason was because that was the day a very close family friend had a stroke and was put into the hospital. The second was because that was the dayBlink-182 announced they were going on an indefinite hiatus, essentially, that they were breaking up. While the former was a more life altering event for me, the latter also signified the end of an era for me. I loved Blink-182, they changed my life in many, many ways and it’s a topic I’ve touched on a few times in the past. When I started hearing news about the various results of the break-up, I was excited. Of course, both bands released new material on the same day and I couldn’t really pick which was my favorite. Tom then went out and released the incredibly over-hyped Angels And Airwaves album, and while it’s good, it was also rather disappointing as it was drowned under the unrealistic expectations along with overly exaggerated intros and outros. A few months later Mark and Tom announced the release date of+44‘s debut, When Your Heart Stops Beating; and when I was finally able to listen to it in it’s entirety, all I could do was stop and say “wow, this is what I needed to hear.”

When I heard the opening tracks, Lycanthrope and Baby Come On, I just sat back and thought about how good it sounded. While it wasn’t absolutely original, it was Mark’s signature vocal style and song writing abilities that stuck out and I just couldn’t stop repeating that this was the album I needed to hear post-Blink182, not an overly ambitious arena-rock record.

Now that’s not to say that this is Blink182 volume two, far from it. While there are distinct similarities, +44 have crafted a sound of their own. Even though it’s not fully electronic as was originally announced,When Your Heart Stops Beating does feature a fair share of electronic effects. Sythn melodies and drum loops take front stage on Little Death (in which Hoppus shows everyone his slightly darker side and very personal lyrics). Slight voice alterations are used to bring his vocals lower to give Weatherman a gloomier and darker feel as they touch on the dissolution of Blink182. Sometimes they sound like Motion City Soundtrack while other tracks could be Blink b-sides, but they’re all distinctly +44. All the songs fit together, they flow and show the many facets of the band, from the more upbeat to the softer tracks and the love songs and dark retrospective tracks.

But as I listen to the album, particularly the end, I can’t help but wonder what +44 would’ve sounded like if Carol Heller had never left the band. I can’t help but feel that No It Isn’t is missing a little touch that her vocals gave to it on the demo version. Her vocals were soft and low in the mix but they brought the song to a new level. And then, there’s Make You Smile, by far the best track on the album, which has Heller trading vocals back and forth with Hoppus. This contrast over the relatively bare music background works perfectly and you can’t help but wonder if that contrast would’ve become boring and repetitive or brought the album to new heights if she had stayed.

But she didn’t, and we are left with that one song to tease us with the thought; and either way, it doesn’t really matter. At the end of the day +44 has given me the CD I needed to hear from them, it’s not always the most original but it shows how incredibly talented Hoppus and Barker are. It’s catchy, it’s fun, it’s just a great release.