+44 - 'When Your Heart Stops Beating'

Second chances and non-sucky super groups are rarities in rock and/or roll. Yet somehow, former blink-182 members Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker, along with guitarists Shane Gallagher (ex-The Nervous Return) and Craig Fairbaugh (ex-almost every Rancid side project ever), have managed to score both with their new band, +44. While fellow blinker Tom DeLonge took his ego to new extremes with the meandering and self-indulgent Angels and Airwaves, Hoppus and Barker have gone the opposite route. The tracks on their new album, When Your Heart Stops Beating, are self-contained pop confections that further explore the Cure-inspired punk vibes of blink-182’s eponymous final album while cutting out DeLonge’s shoddy songwriting.

When Your Heart Stops Beating is a solid, cohesive album from start to finish. However, it can be broken down into three separate styles — the songs recall Duran Duran, The Cure or blink-182. But, these labels aren’t meant to imply that +44 is derivative, for the band has managed to sound new wave without blatantly ripping off past new wave acts.

A decent chunk of the record reveals ties to blink-182. Album opener “Lycanthrope” recalls the fury and desperation of tracks like “Stockholm Syndrome” and “Go.” The second track, “Baby, Come On,” offers solace to blink fans while using the blink trademark (pretty picking for the verses, powerful strumming on the choruses). The closing track, “Chapter 13,” has the same epic sense of finale as “I’m Lost Without You” did on blink-182.

In the middle, though, is where Hoppus shows his flare for creating synthy, danceable pop music. Lead single “When Your Heart Stops Beating” and potential singles “Cliff Diving” and “155” are as catchy as any Duran Duran hit. They’re perfect radio-ready numbers — you can memorize the chorus after one listen, and you’ll be sure to shout it out every time afterwards.

The Cure-inspired songs on When Your Heart Stops Beating are the mellower ones. They provide diversity to the album, as well as accentuate the punch of more intense tunes like “Lycanthrope” and “Cliff Diving.” On “Little Death,” “Lillian,” “Interlude” and “Weatherman,” the soft noodling and gloomy outlook of The Cure’s Disintegration comes out. However, Barker’s love of hip-hop also mixes into these tracks, as his beats manage to make them livelier as well as darker.

Barker’s drumming on the whole album needs to be commended. On record at least, he has finally stopped overplaying and started providing Hoppus with some awesome percussive structures from which to hang his catchy hooks.

Perhaps as a way of distancing itself from blink-182, +44 was originally conceived as an electronic group with (now former) member Carol Heller. These qualities still poke through on the Rio-inspired tracks mentioned above, but is most brilliantly presented on “Make You Smile.” Beginning with only a simple piano part, it quickly turns into a Postal Service-style ditty, with Heller and Hoppus coyly flirting over electronic drums.

There is one drawback to When Your Heart Stops Beating, though: the sullen lyrics. Nine out of the 12 tracks are downers (and one of those remaining three is an instrumental), pouring bile and hate over some unnamed person. Except, given how ugly things are among blink-182’s former members, it’s hard to think of the album as anything other than a “forget you” directed at DeLonge. It works well on the scathing “No, It Isn’t,” but all of the references to slitting wrists, burning down beautiful things and being left alone overwhelm the experience. Hoppus may have cut down on the penis jokes of his blink days, but he still comes off as too immature at times. It’s like listening to Alkaline Trio z-sides.

Even though Hoppus copies a bit too much from Matt Skiba’s gloomy diary, +44 still provides some catchy jams. Much like AFI’s recent Decemberunderground, When Your Heart Stops Beating combines punk, new wave and electronic flourishes into one easy-to-digest album. In addition to getting a second chance and forming a super group, +44 have pulled off one other rarity — an entire album that will get stuck in your head simultaneously.