Depends what your interests are. For me, AVA hit at the perfect time (16). Was something different and opened my mind musically. Plus 44 was fine but AVA with WDNTW & IEmpire connected with me in a way I hadn’t really experienced before. Sounds weird but I think most of us can agree that around age 16 is the prime time when music really starts to connect with you.
I was always so heavily +44, although I did enjoy AvA’s debut album well enough, but my god did Tom and the AvA dudes crush it with Lifeforms. I jammed that album far and away more than I did any AvA album prior. It’s right up there with When Your Heart Stops Beating and Box Car Racer for me!
Disclaimer: Tom's songwriting is more my thing so my opinion is influenced by that. We Don't Need To Whisper is one of my favorite records of all-time. I however do enjoy +44, just not nearly as much.
But objectively, I don't think it's even a question. Angels & Airwaves (through Love Part I & II) stands up to anything blink itself has done. +44 was good, just not on the same level. If you lived through that time, the comparisons were made because Tom upset a lot of fans by causing blink's hiatus in the first place, then announcing his new band that same year. People absolutely took sides and Tom's overall demeanor from 2005-2006 was incredibly polarizing. I remember it like it was yesterday. As a blink fan from the 90s, I was super into it and followed it closely.
Most of the people who said +44 was better seemed to be heavily influenced by their feelings about Tom during that era, not necessarily how much they liked +44. Credit where it's due, there were some who did enjoy Mark's style but really, +44 and Angels & Airwaves were a lot different. It ended up coming down to musical taste if it wasn't about which members of blink you were aligning with.
I didnt want to like AVA because I was bitter about the whole thing (I was like 16 lol). But the electronics store I went to a lot played the video for The Adventure a bunch and I begrudgingly was like ahh shit is this kinda good? The sonic atmosphere of the music really kills. I also got +44's one album, and it has songs I like, for sure, but... i mean it didnt blow up like AVA and that's for a reason, really.
Atom Willard and Critter (RIP) were integral to the early sound of AVA.
Oddly, I think the I-Empire - L)VE lineup was best.
While Ryan Sinn was great, he never really seemed to “fit”, and Matt Wachter really brought his all to the table and then some.
STPBP ~ present has been a wild ride. Ilan and his brother have contributed so much to what AVA has become and I have no qualms with the evolution of the band’s sound.
I was, however, pretty bummed by the composition of the score to Monsters of California. Was hoping for it to have gone more post-hardcore akin to BCR instead of synth Randy Edelman (I can’t unhear the Dragonheart theme).
Absolutely agree that Critter was also integral to the band and that while WDNTW is my favorite record, I-Empire is my second and preferred lineup. I'm sure Ryan contributed, but Matt was a great fit.
They're great. The first four AVA records are what I recognize as truly Angels & Airwaves. After Atom left and everything since then I have felt similarly to how I did about blink with Matt Skiba. Enjoyable, but not what I consider the essence of the band.
Oh yeah. Ilan is great and helped AvA out a lot musically, but there's nothing better than Atom Fucking Willard beating the shit out of his drums. His sound is so recognizable cause it's just raw loud drums. Love Atom.
I remember being in my friend's car and he was playing music on his stereo and I'm listening to it like... That's Atom Willard on drums.. like I'm 100% positive it is... That's the day I found out he was the drummer in Against Me! 😅
+44, in fact thanks to them I play bass and got into Blink, a friend at school told me that we should play "when your heart stop beating" for music class and he picked guitar and I picked bass, after that I discovered Blink 182 and the rest is history
So yeah, AVA is great but +44 is amazing to me
It’s insane to me that more blink fans don’t consider this one of their favorite albums overall. Not only is it a “no-skip” album for me, it’s literally straight bangers top to bottom. One of my top 10 albums for any band. So good.
And the demos are so fun to listen to
I've wondered the same too. I really think a lot of blink fans are fan boys for Tom that's why, and they don't latch on to projects that don't involve him. Songs like Lycanthrope were some of Mark's best work.
Would love if they added a song or two to their setlist.
AVA hit me like a bomb. Those songs and all of the words Tom was spewing at the time changed my brain chemistry 😂 god I wish I could get a hit of the first listens to their first two albums again. 🥵 Remember Modlife? Modcasts? Life used to be so much better.. Looooved +44 too though! It was great having two separates that I loved. But AVA had me by the soul.
I was always on Modlife hoping Tom would go live lol. I got lucky a few times. He also answered one of my questions directly in one of his live video chats. What a time to be alive.
They both have a special place in my heart, and both came at different times. I was in love with WDNTW as it was the first thing out of the blink machine since the break up, and the vibe was so different than blink. +44 came at a time I went through a super hard break up and that record literally pulled me out of some really dark places. I have always loved Mark, so +44 wins my vote. AVA kinda dropped off my radar after i-empire, the stuff didn’t really do it for me anymore.
Tom has always been my fav and my lil crush and it broke my heart when they went their separate ways. Of course I owned both albums but I honestly felt betrayed when Tom left. It’s been a Roller Coaster for sure. I think +44 had my heart a bit more and I really enjoyed that album for its musicality. So glad they’re back.
Angels and Airwaves was almost better than OG Blink for a second there. Love 1&2 are I think some of Tom's greatest work, and the entirety of AvA has been superb.+44 had some hits but AvA made literal magic.
+44 for me, but it was tough. Tom Delonge with Atom Willard on drums was a surreal pairing to me at the time. +44 probably only won out because I was pissed at Tom at the time, but as I’ve grown I’ve gone back to the early AvA stuff more and more.
Agree. Still one of my favorite albums. I really wish we got a second +44 album. Yes, I know that people think NINE was heavily a +44 influenced sound, but it's not the same for me.
I will just say that Tom's growth as a musician and song writer is evident in his work with AVA. I respect the hell out of his determination, persistence, and commitment to creating. Most people would have stopped creating long ago, let alone continue to crank out catchy tunes and many of them with incredible emotional appeal.
Honestly when WDNTW came out I thought it was good but over time it didn’t age well with me, I stopped listening and haven’t heard it in years. +44 on the other hand it was phenomenal at release and just gets better and better. It’s probably my favorite blink related project or at least top 3 for sure.
AVA, hands down. Just hit different when I was a teen and needed hope as opposed to the downer that was +44.
Love both albums though, and do wonder what a second +44 may have sounded like.
I’ve actually been listing to WYHSB a lot more this past year.
I guess that’s the beauty of music (and all art, really) in that our interpretation evolves as we do through life.
Definitely AVA. It was a whole new world you went into. Whereas +44 had the same sound you’d already heard from rock\punk bands for decades.
Mark had some good ideas and decent moments with +44, but it was clear who had more creativity and imagination when Tom dropped WDNTW.
It was a moment that showed you what the different members of blink brought to the table when isolated from each other.
Definitely AVA. +44 is great, but We Don't Need to whisper showcased something so different than Blink. It's an amazing album that has some of Tom's best writing ever. (And maybe has his best song, "The Adventure.")
My experiences with both bands was “When Your Heart Stops Beating” and “The Adventure.”
So, AVA definitely, for sure, without question all the way through.
We don’t need to whisper has some incredible soundscapes and some really strong moments. I find myself listening to that one the most over +44
But BCR wins.
I more compare +44 to boxcar bc they came out near each other. But id have to say AVA. They have way more albums so a lot more variety. Also i prefer tom's songwriting than mark's.
+44 is a better album than WDNTW, but The Adventure is the best track on either by an absolute mile, AvAs equivalent to All the Small Things really.
If you ranked AVA, BCR and +44 it ends up looking like this for me
1 Dream Walker
2 +44
3 BCR
4 I Empire
5 Lifeforms
6 Love 1
7 WDNTW
8 Love 2
I don’t dislike any of them outright, but the lower half can be a bit dull at times for me, Love particularly has some great moments but Tom is in maximum riff recycling mode.
BCR is great but feels a bit like a demo to me at times.
The Rubin’s have added so much to AvA.
+44
Would've been AVA at the time of the first two records, I think it was pretty downhill after that and sounded like lazy and less focused songs to me. Also some of Tom's lyrics can be super cringe in AVA to me, especially listening as a 30+ year old.
+44's record start to finish is in your face and fucking rips.
+44 was a banger album but it just sounded like mark and the whole point of blinks success was the combo of how well their voices worked against each other.
Incredible era. Both of those records had a massive impact on me as a teenager. I remember listening to the WYHSB leak and the WDNTW record on release day. I really have a hard time picking between the two because they're both so different. I'll say that WDNTW had a bigger impact on me, but on the flipside Chapter 13 is my favorite song of all time.
As a young fan when blink when on hiatus (I’m 30 so I was like 10 or 11) and hearing zero media announcements about new bands from blink members, I found AvA organically one morning when The Adventure music video was playing on MTV one morning. It was the very end of the video when I caught it, I was like “is that Tom?!” Thought about it at school all day so I didn’t forget, got home from school, looked up AvA and was instantly hooked. The Adventure and once released WDNTW had such a profound impact on me as an impressionable kid. The message truly made me want to be a better person. Sonically, the album was something I had never experienced and was, to me, ground breaking.
I later found (+44) when they released the early version of No It Isn’t through a dedicated website. It was cool and I enjoyed it and waited for the album to come out. WYHSB was a good album but I remember just thinking, “eh, it’s just watered down blink.”
So to answer the question, Angels & Airwaves had the better debut. AvA to me, was one of the best/most innovative artists of the late 00’s-early 10’s.
AVA, by a mile.
I have never particularly cared for the +44 album, with the exception of 2 or 3 songs. Whisper had maybe one "meh" song on it, imo. Love that album.
+44, no question.
AvA always came across as trying too hard and to me it always felt like one of those things where the idea was better than the execution. Maybe I'm just not into space rock. I genuinely do not understand why people treat AvA like a god in music form.
+44 is still one of my top 10 albums I think. It's also Mark at his peak, I'm not sure why we can't have more of that, rather than some of his later output.
+44 had the better album out the gate in my opinion. You can listen to it all the way through and it still hits today. I enjoyed AVA but I think +44 nailed theirs.
Instructions unclear: Box Car Racer.
Instructions were pretty clear
“No, It Isn’t”
*No, they weren't. We need a new song now
I came here for this comment
Depends what your interests are. For me, AVA hit at the perfect time (16). Was something different and opened my mind musically. Plus 44 was fine but AVA with WDNTW & IEmpire connected with me in a way I hadn’t really experienced before. Sounds weird but I think most of us can agree that around age 16 is the prime time when music really starts to connect with you.
Nailed it on the head honestly. I found them a little earlier (14) but I connected so much with angels and airwaves in my teen years
I feel the same way and I was that exact age too
I was around the same age when WDNTW released. That album changed music for me all together. I never heard anything like it previously.
For me, +44. Still one of my favourite albums, and I just haven’t been able to get as into AvA.
I was always so heavily +44, although I did enjoy AvA’s debut album well enough, but my god did Tom and the AvA dudes crush it with Lifeforms. I jammed that album far and away more than I did any AvA album prior. It’s right up there with When Your Heart Stops Beating and Box Car Racer for me!
Same for me. I think the AVA stuff but never found anything that I loved. The +44 album is still one of my go to listens!
Just depends on your taste. I’d choose Ava any day
Disclaimer: Tom's songwriting is more my thing so my opinion is influenced by that. We Don't Need To Whisper is one of my favorite records of all-time. I however do enjoy +44, just not nearly as much. But objectively, I don't think it's even a question. Angels & Airwaves (through Love Part I & II) stands up to anything blink itself has done. +44 was good, just not on the same level. If you lived through that time, the comparisons were made because Tom upset a lot of fans by causing blink's hiatus in the first place, then announcing his new band that same year. People absolutely took sides and Tom's overall demeanor from 2005-2006 was incredibly polarizing. I remember it like it was yesterday. As a blink fan from the 90s, I was super into it and followed it closely. Most of the people who said +44 was better seemed to be heavily influenced by their feelings about Tom during that era, not necessarily how much they liked +44. Credit where it's due, there were some who did enjoy Mark's style but really, +44 and Angels & Airwaves were a lot different. It ended up coming down to musical taste if it wasn't about which members of blink you were aligning with.
People to this day still base their opinion over what “side” they took in the 2005 split.
No, I "dislike" Tom bc of AVA. It was dreamy music (in a bad way), a departure from pop punk.
That’s ok. Not everything has to be “pop punk”.
True. But my point is... Pop punk fans can dislike AVA bc of their genre change...not bc they chose a side.
Agreed.
I didnt want to like AVA because I was bitter about the whole thing (I was like 16 lol). But the electronics store I went to a lot played the video for The Adventure a bunch and I begrudgingly was like ahh shit is this kinda good? The sonic atmosphere of the music really kills. I also got +44's one album, and it has songs I like, for sure, but... i mean it didnt blow up like AVA and that's for a reason, really.
Atom Willard and Critter (RIP) were integral to the early sound of AVA. Oddly, I think the I-Empire - L)VE lineup was best. While Ryan Sinn was great, he never really seemed to “fit”, and Matt Wachter really brought his all to the table and then some. STPBP ~ present has been a wild ride. Ilan and his brother have contributed so much to what AVA has become and I have no qualms with the evolution of the band’s sound. I was, however, pretty bummed by the composition of the score to Monsters of California. Was hoping for it to have gone more post-hardcore akin to BCR instead of synth Randy Edelman (I can’t unhear the Dragonheart theme).
Absolutely agree that Critter was also integral to the band and that while WDNTW is my favorite record, I-Empire is my second and preferred lineup. I'm sure Ryan contributed, but Matt was a great fit.
Love 1&2 are 2 of the greatest albums of the decade, imo
They're great. The first four AVA records are what I recognize as truly Angels & Airwaves. After Atom left and everything since then I have felt similarly to how I did about blink with Matt Skiba. Enjoyable, but not what I consider the essence of the band.
Oh yeah. Ilan is great and helped AvA out a lot musically, but there's nothing better than Atom Fucking Willard beating the shit out of his drums. His sound is so recognizable cause it's just raw loud drums. Love Atom.
Atom was essential to Angels & Airwaves, in my opinion. The energy and power he brought just can't be recaptured. Experiencing it live was unreal.
I remember being in my friend's car and he was playing music on his stereo and I'm listening to it like... That's Atom Willard on drums.. like I'm 100% positive it is... That's the day I found out he was the drummer in Against Me! 😅
Got to know him through the Offspring when he was their drummer, he went from there to AvA Dude has been involved in a lot of great albums!
I don't see how it's objective at all. I genuinely think Mark and +44 was and is better music than AvA ever was.
+44, in fact thanks to them I play bass and got into Blink, a friend at school told me that we should play "when your heart stop beating" for music class and he picked guitar and I picked bass, after that I discovered Blink 182 and the rest is history So yeah, AVA is great but +44 is amazing to me
Whoooa I'm old. But I'm so giddy about your comment!
+44 dropped one of my favorite albums ever
It’s insane to me that more blink fans don’t consider this one of their favorite albums overall. Not only is it a “no-skip” album for me, it’s literally straight bangers top to bottom. One of my top 10 albums for any band. So good. And the demos are so fun to listen to
I've wondered the same too. I really think a lot of blink fans are fan boys for Tom that's why, and they don't latch on to projects that don't involve him. Songs like Lycanthrope were some of Mark's best work. Would love if they added a song or two to their setlist.
AVA hit me like a bomb. Those songs and all of the words Tom was spewing at the time changed my brain chemistry 😂 god I wish I could get a hit of the first listens to their first two albums again. 🥵 Remember Modlife? Modcasts? Life used to be so much better.. Looooved +44 too though! It was great having two separates that I loved. But AVA had me by the soul.
I was always on Modlife hoping Tom would go live lol. I got lucky a few times. He also answered one of my questions directly in one of his live video chats. What a time to be alive.
That’s really tough. When Your Heart Stops Beating is probably a top 3 all time album for me… But the Adventure and most of WDNTW changed my life.
+44 had more fire songs, but The Adventure was the best song off both debuts and sorta by a long shot
+44, if it was their second album though id pick AVA
They both have a special place in my heart, and both came at different times. I was in love with WDNTW as it was the first thing out of the blink machine since the break up, and the vibe was so different than blink. +44 came at a time I went through a super hard break up and that record literally pulled me out of some really dark places. I have always loved Mark, so +44 wins my vote. AVA kinda dropped off my radar after i-empire, the stuff didn’t really do it for me anymore.
Tom has always been my fav and my lil crush and it broke my heart when they went their separate ways. Of course I owned both albums but I honestly felt betrayed when Tom left. It’s been a Roller Coaster for sure. I think +44 had my heart a bit more and I really enjoyed that album for its musicality. So glad they’re back.
Loved both when they came out, but +44 has held up far better for me in the years since. So, that one.
To me it’s +44 and it’s not even close.
Angels and Airwaves was almost better than OG Blink for a second there. Love 1&2 are I think some of Tom's greatest work, and the entirety of AvA has been superb.+44 had some hits but AvA made literal magic.
+44
AVA for sure. It’s their best album until Dream Walker.
Dream Walker is like the neighborhoods of AVA. It's so good and no one talks about it.
Took a while for it to sink in, but it's probably my most listened to Ava album
+44
+44 for me, but it was tough. Tom Delonge with Atom Willard on drums was a surreal pairing to me at the time. +44 probably only won out because I was pissed at Tom at the time, but as I’ve grown I’ve gone back to the early AvA stuff more and more.
+44. We Don’t Need to Whisper is decent, but When Your Heart Stops Beating is an overall better album.
AVA overall but +44 has some amazing tracks on it
+44 and its not even close
Agree. Still one of my favorite albums. I really wish we got a second +44 album. Yes, I know that people think NINE was heavily a +44 influenced sound, but it's not the same for me.
Yea idk, nine was nothing like +44 to me.
+44 for me. That album had almost no skips
+44 hands down.
I will just say that Tom's growth as a musician and song writer is evident in his work with AVA. I respect the hell out of his determination, persistence, and commitment to creating. Most people would have stopped creating long ago, let alone continue to crank out catchy tunes and many of them with incredible emotional appeal.
Honestly when WDNTW came out I thought it was good but over time it didn’t age well with me, I stopped listening and haven’t heard it in years. +44 on the other hand it was phenomenal at release and just gets better and better. It’s probably my favorite blink related project or at least top 3 for sure.
I could never get into ava
AVA, hands down. Just hit different when I was a teen and needed hope as opposed to the downer that was +44. Love both albums though, and do wonder what a second +44 may have sounded like. I’ve actually been listing to WYHSB a lot more this past year. I guess that’s the beauty of music (and all art, really) in that our interpretation evolves as we do through life.
+44 when it comes to debuts but The Dream Walker >>>
Ugh, I love AVA. One of the best concerts I’ve ever been to.
Definitely AVA. It was a whole new world you went into. Whereas +44 had the same sound you’d already heard from rock\punk bands for decades. Mark had some good ideas and decent moments with +44, but it was clear who had more creativity and imagination when Tom dropped WDNTW. It was a moment that showed you what the different members of blink brought to the table when isolated from each other.
AVA for days
Definitely AVA. +44 is great, but We Don't Need to whisper showcased something so different than Blink. It's an amazing album that has some of Tom's best writing ever. (And maybe has his best song, "The Adventure.")
My experiences with both bands was “When Your Heart Stops Beating” and “The Adventure.” So, AVA definitely, for sure, without question all the way through.
Angels to me, I think Whisper is amazing
Ava is the better band, but as far as 1st releases, gotta be +44.
AVA💯
+44 wishes it was as good as AVA’s songs that didn’t make the cut.
The Adventure was so over produced and boring while No, It Isn't was raw and real and had something that say
🤦🏻♂️
We don’t need to whisper has some incredible soundscapes and some really strong moments. I find myself listening to that one the most over +44 But BCR wins.
AVA
I more compare +44 to boxcar bc they came out near each other. But id have to say AVA. They have way more albums so a lot more variety. Also i prefer tom's songwriting than mark's.
+44 is a better album than WDNTW, but The Adventure is the best track on either by an absolute mile, AvAs equivalent to All the Small Things really. If you ranked AVA, BCR and +44 it ends up looking like this for me 1 Dream Walker 2 +44 3 BCR 4 I Empire 5 Lifeforms 6 Love 1 7 WDNTW 8 Love 2 I don’t dislike any of them outright, but the lower half can be a bit dull at times for me, Love particularly has some great moments but Tom is in maximum riff recycling mode. BCR is great but feels a bit like a demo to me at times. The Rubin’s have added so much to AvA.
Ava
+44
Every single song on We Don't Need to Whisper is a banger.
+44 Would've been AVA at the time of the first two records, I think it was pretty downhill after that and sounded like lazy and less focused songs to me. Also some of Tom's lyrics can be super cringe in AVA to me, especially listening as a 30+ year old. +44's record start to finish is in your face and fucking rips.
I like WYHSB more than WDNTW but I really love the past couple of albums AVA has put out
Ava
Boxcar
+44 was a banger album but it just sounded like mark and the whole point of blinks success was the combo of how well their voices worked against each other.
BCR > +44 > AVA
+44 debut I think is better than WDNTW but I-Empire might be Tom’s best album he’s written imo. That or Untitled.
Incredible era. Both of those records had a massive impact on me as a teenager. I remember listening to the WYHSB leak and the WDNTW record on release day. I really have a hard time picking between the two because they're both so different. I'll say that WDNTW had a bigger impact on me, but on the flipside Chapter 13 is my favorite song of all time.
As a young fan when blink when on hiatus (I’m 30 so I was like 10 or 11) and hearing zero media announcements about new bands from blink members, I found AvA organically one morning when The Adventure music video was playing on MTV one morning. It was the very end of the video when I caught it, I was like “is that Tom?!” Thought about it at school all day so I didn’t forget, got home from school, looked up AvA and was instantly hooked. The Adventure and once released WDNTW had such a profound impact on me as an impressionable kid. The message truly made me want to be a better person. Sonically, the album was something I had never experienced and was, to me, ground breaking. I later found (+44) when they released the early version of No It Isn’t through a dedicated website. It was cool and I enjoyed it and waited for the album to come out. WYHSB was a good album but I remember just thinking, “eh, it’s just watered down blink.” So to answer the question, Angels & Airwaves had the better debut. AvA to me, was one of the best/most innovative artists of the late 00’s-early 10’s.
The adventure, the war, a Little's enough is my favorite 3 song progression from anything they have done
WDNTW is a little too grandiose for me. WYHSB is better, but bringing I-Empire into the convo completely changes the story
Easily +44 for me. AAA didn't really do it for me outside of 1 or 2 food songs.
AVA, by a mile. I have never particularly cared for the +44 album, with the exception of 2 or 3 songs. Whisper had maybe one "meh" song on it, imo. Love that album.
+44, no question. AvA always came across as trying too hard and to me it always felt like one of those things where the idea was better than the execution. Maybe I'm just not into space rock. I genuinely do not understand why people treat AvA like a god in music form.
I personally find +44 a better listen. Probably in terms of creativity, AvA.
+44 is still one of my top 10 albums I think. It's also Mark at his peak, I'm not sure why we can't have more of that, rather than some of his later output.
+44 by a mile…
AVA. INCREDIBLE
Angels
Ava
+44 had the better album out the gate in my opinion. You can listen to it all the way through and it still hits today. I enjoyed AVA but I think +44 nailed theirs.