It’s hard to believe that Blink 182 guitarist Mark Hoppus’ playing has actually gotten worse since the 90s. But he’s willing to prove it with his new project + 44, a collaborative effort with his Blink 182 band mate, drummer Travis Barker, and two new poor participants.
The new players, Shane Gallagher of The Nervous Return and Craig Faurbaugh of The Transplants obviously didn’t consult their career advisors before getting involved with this potential reputation-ruining album.
Harsh words, yes. But honestly, I’m sick of giving Blink 182’s side projects a chance. I’m willing to bet that any album featuring Tom Delong, Mark Hoppus, Travis Barker or even worse, as in the case of + 44, a combination of any two, is doomed.
“When Your Heart Stops Beating,” +44’s debut release, lacks all musical originality and all the elements good stuff is made of. The tunes are forgettable, and the level of playing is beyond basic.
Throughout the entire album there is not one thought provoking guitar riff or complex rhythm. If anything, the album evokes in the listener a sense of frustration, begging the question of what label on Earth would shell out money for this poor of a project.
It doesn’t seem fair that involvement with one hit band (Blink 182) is enough to allow all members years of future funding for lackluster side projects.
The lyrics of “When Your Heart Stops Beating” are strictly one-dimensional. Each verse contains only slightly different discussion of the same old asinine scenarios, which I’m willing to chalk up to be some sort of marketing scheme. Although I will admit the scheme seems to have worked, since the only people I can see listening to these guys are still using fake IDs to buy cigarettes.
After graduating from high school, one has simply lost his place in the target audience for + 44.
It might be that these guys have nothing original to say to anyone. Or that their music skills have failed to advance past an eighth grade level, or that their personal lives haven’t surpassed holding hands and referring to sexual acts by means of “the base-system.”
For those of us who’ve advanced beyond a grade school education, greasy black hair and checkerboard patterns paired with fluffy choruses and redundant guitar lines simply don’t cut it anymore against anything with a rhythmic backbone and half a melody.
Between the 39 CD and DVD releases mentioned on the official Blink 182 Web site, and an undetermined number of releases from side projects, the three original band members have certainly reached (and exceeded) their maximum level of bad music emissions into the world’s musical atmosphere.
Jessica Dore can be reached at [email protected].
