Angels and Airwaves Band • Page 19

The Dream Walker was definitely a huge step up songwriting-wise from the previous 2 albums, but it's still flawed. The worst offender is the production, it just sounds so distorted and muddy. Songs like Paralyzed I can barely hear the vocals in the chorus. It's also weird hearing the demos for songs like The Wolfpack and realizing that it was so much better before they went back and changed it.

But I still think Tunnels and Bullets in the Wind are two of AVAs best songs.

 

I also prefer the demo version but I feel like Tom realized it was way too much of a ripoff of Heartbeats by the Knife in the demo form:

 

"Mercenaries" and "Bullet In The Wind" are my 2 favorites from TDW, easily. In fact, I couldn't even tell you what any of the other songs sound like, because I just stopped going back to the album as a whole after the first week or so of its release. I remember there's an acoustic song where Tom's voice sounds kind of different, but that's the only other song that stands out to me from memory.

But I still think The Dream Walker is in AVA's top 3 albums, even though I remember only a fraction of it, haha.

 

It may be tied with WDNTW being the worst for me. Valkyrie Missile is a top 3 song though which may keep it slightly above TDW for me.

 

Yeah, I'm totally with you on the Anti-WDNTW train. That album does NOT hold up... It's got some cool parts, a couple great songs, but a shit ton of eye-rolly things that AVA would start duplicating over and over again on albums that came after it. Until TDW where Tom basically stripped away all that AVA was known for and started with a clean slate rather than trying to sound like past records. I think that's a big part of why I liked TDW a lot initially. It wasn't the same song over and over again. It was a lot more original and stripped back.

 

Ya for sure. I respected that but I like what I like and Tom stripped all those parts away on TDW.

 

Please don’t tell me you only liked his delay guitars and 10 minute intros/outros, recycled melodies and riffs.... hahaha

 

Teenagers & Rituals, Tunnels, Bullets in the Wind, and the demo version of the Wolfpack are fine.

Overall the production is lacking and I hardly ever return to this album.

 

I’m listening to it right now. Two songs in and I think the production is just fine. Both of the first two songs rule.

 

Eh compare it side by side with the other records.

Lol and no, not the recycled riffs and over-grandiose crap that people lamented about. I liked his simple style. Living in that pop-sensibility. Major scale shit. He could put that together so well and interestingly. The root-note drifting shit he talks about in the pursuit of tone. That simple noodling he could do would craft my favorite songs and no one did it as well as him no matter how much they tried.

Absolutely none of that exists on tdw

 

I remember being very bummed out when Tom was teasing an acoustic version of We Don't Need to Whisper for the 10th anniversary of the record because nothing was released on 05/23/2016 and then all it ended up being was a 4 song ep of acoustic versions of the first 4 tracks. Don't remember exactly when it came out but I think it was like a few weeks late...this seems much more promising, whatever this is gonna be.

 

Whisper > Love > I-Empire > Love 2 > Dream Walker

 

Love series is underrated around here

 

He ended up releasing that album on August 25, 2017.

 

Love series, if they cut it down a bit and was released first would have been huge. As it stands now it’s just massively bloated and tiring by the end.

 

UPDATE: “The Wolfpack” kinda sucks, “Tunnels” is meh, and “Kiss With A Spell” is way too long. “Mercenaries” still kicks ass though!

 

holy shit, that's over a year later! my memory is off lol

 

Hell yeah

 

Mercenaries is the best AVA song...I really hope this album is more of a continuation of the Tom/Ilan songwriting partnership. I think TDW may not be the best AVA album, but it definitely could be a stepping stone to something sonically expansive from Tom. Having David Kennedy back though isn't gonna push the band's creativity by any stretch though...correct me if I'm wrong, but all he ever did when he was in the band was some basic-ass riffing behind Tom's leads. Dude is a much better coffee roaster than a guitarist.

 

I-Empire
Love
Dream Walker
WDNTW
Love 2

Anxiety is an all-time song for AvA though. So is Reel 1: Diary.

 

Backed

 

1. WDNTW
2. I-Empire
3. Love 2
4. TDW
5. Love 1

 

1. Love 1
2. The Dream Walker
3. We Don't Need to Whisper
4. Love 2
5. Chasing Shadows
6. The Dream Walker Demos
7. I-Empire
8. ...Of Nightmares

 

I-empire
Chasing shadows
Love1&2 (I don’t know what songs are on which but I like them as a whole)
Stomping
.
.
.
Of nightmares
WDNTW
TDW

 

So excited for music and tour. And I basically wrote this band off after Love 1, but when TDW came out I was blown away at how good it was. It made me rethink the love albums and I enjoy both of them now. I think WDNTW and Iempire are their worst albums, but have some good material. Also, dont sleep on their last 2 EPs. If that's a sign of things to come, this will be fantastic