The Past Is Only The Future With The Lights On
A Review of +44's When Your Heart Stops Beating
This week’s episode of Filler covered the middle of blink-182’s career. Steve and I discussed Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, blink-182, Neighborhoods, and Dogs Eating Dogs. We also spoke about blink’s side projects, including Tom DeLonge’s Box Car Racer and Angels & Airwaves as well as today’s subject: Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker’s +44.
Last week I reviewed Tom’s foray into a solo project that became less solo as its recording wore on. I enjoyed it and thought it held up fine enough, but ultimately it was just a trial run for Angels & Airwaves.
I feel quite differently about +44’s When Your Heart Stops Beating.
Dry Your Hollow Eyes and Let’s Go Down to the Water
After blink-182’s Untitled in 2003, the band grew tense likely stemmed from post-TOYPAJ and Box Car Racer days. DeLonge wanted to take break after touring and focus his creative energy elsewhere; Hoppus and Barker felt contentious about that, so they went on indefinite hiatus in 2005. Tom formed Angels & Airwaves, while Mark and Travis created +44 with guitarists Shane Gallagher and Craig Fairbaugh. Hoppus and Barker produced the record with oversight from longtime blink-producer, Jerry Finn.
The overall tone of When Your Heart Stops Beating leans much more electronic, mostly due to the constraints of the original recording (i.e., recording demos in a house). “155” especially showcases synth as a focal point in lieu of the traditional hooky guitar riffing that blink is famous for. “Lillian” continues the electronic theme in its almost minute-long intro, a callback to the extended instrumental prologues of Cheshire Cat and Dude Ranch days.
Beyond the album’s overall darker, electronic timbre, Hoppus’s lyrics have never been more biting. Again, “Lillian” (Can you tell that’s a favorite of mine?) rips into a former lover:
“Your heart is a grave, to be perfectly honest
Your mouth’s a smoking gun
And you smile while you’re twisting the knife in my stomach
Until everything is gone.”
When I was 13 and listening to this record, all I could hear was romantic heartbreak. Now I detect more platonic heartbreak from Hoppus, though I might be reading too deeply. Knowing how deeply Mark was hurt by Tom because of Box Car Racer, their friendship was deep enough to cause enough pain to be on par with that of a shattered romance. I concede that Hoppus’s lens leans romantic, but a part of me will always question where all the inspiration comes from. Regardless, I have never loved his lyrics more.
This is a heartbreak album from start to finish. “Weatherman” might descend deepest:
“Let me slip away, I’m barely holding on
Every now and then, I feel the end of us
I love the way you breathe inside my head
But something’s gotta change, I’m barely holding on.”
Both as a teenager and now in my early thirties, WYHSB is the logical, natural next step after blink-182. Hoppus is channeling The Cure’s Robert Smith after he was featured on “All of This.”
In +44 I discovered the depth I yearned for in blink’s music. WYHSB incorporates all of the electronic experimentation from Untitled while retaining hooks galore in Hoppus’s melodies. Barker holds it down as he always does, solidifying himself as the most consistent drummer in mainstream pop-punk.
And We’ll Both Take Our Revenge…
While “Lillian” skews romantic despite crossing a Venn diagram that might have inspired some interesting Tumblr fanfiction, “No It Isn’t” is Mark’s public shot at Tom. Hoppus goes full emo with his scorn and anger. The cleanest of guitars rings in with electric keys, and he comes out the gate swinging:
“Please understand
This isn’t just goodbye
This is ‘I can’t stand you.’”
I was freakin’ 13 years old, and I understood that was Mark stabbing Tom directly in the heart. Hell, my own heart broke as I listened to the album on my Walkman. Not only did my favorite band break up, but the two guys I looked up to hated each other. I was crestfallen yet grateful for how their splintered relationship pushed them into interesting creative pursuits for my own listenership. Although this was much to process as a young, developing human, Mark and Tom’s rift incited me to view the world with nuance and empathy, which is an astonishingly mature takeaway from the breakup of a band that sings “Happy Holidays, You Bastard.”
But We Still Won’t Feel Any Better
Whenever I write about an EP or an album, I always focus on the closer. Growing up on Jimmy Eat World and Motion City Soundtrack has honed my ear to listen to that song as the ultimate message an artist or band is communicating with their piece of music. It has become an almost sacred moment of a musical artifact.
“Chapter 13” might be my favorite song in the wider blink-182 universe. It opens with a wall of guitars, is covered in hooks, and Hoppus slices through hearts with his lyrics and delivery. Just today I woke up singing “I’m scraped and sober, but there’s no one listening”!
If “No It Isn’t” was Mark leaning into his emo tendencies, “Chapter 13” is his conclusion that +44 is an emotional band in a way that blink never really was. They flirted with depth and mature feelings and themes, but none of their songs—aside from an “Adam’s Song” here and a “Stay Together for the Kids”there—cut as deeply as the songs on When Your Heart Stops Beating.
While I appreciate that blink’s initial break-up led to the formation of +44 and Angels & Airwaves, there is a part of me that wishes we got another +44 album. Of course I am grateful that the band got back together and we got Neighborhoods ONE MORE TIME… eventually, but I will always think about what could have been for both Tom’s initial creative projects (e.g., Box Car Racer) and Mark and Travis’s focused partnership. I mean, can you imagine what a “Chapter 14” would’ve sounded like? Baby, come on.
Thank you for your eyes, those things you read with.
