+44 — When Your Heart Stops Beating

With Tom DeLonge busy masturbating in the mirror with Angels & Airwaves, his ex-bandmates created +44 to pay the bills in the wake of Blink-182's demise. Unlike DeLonge's bloated space-pop, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker have decided to stick to their guns, as When Your Heart Stops Beating sounds like the next logical step for Blink. They've incorporated synthesizers and drum machines into their sugary pop-punk formula, removed all the "funny" elements, and Hoppus has learned how to craft hooks that actually aren't so fucking annoying. The result? It ain't half bad. And while, in their absence, bands have already played this style to death, the album has enough catchy material to make the new band a contender even without DeLonge's (mostly overrated) star status.

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