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This is the debut studio album by the American rock band "Angels & Airwaves". Recorded at Neverpants Ranch in San Diego, California, and produced by guitarist and vocalist Tom DeLonge (Blink-182), the album was released on May 23, 2006, through Geffen Records.
After their fourth album and their huge success, Blink-182 took a hiatus, during that time DeLonge wrote much darker materials which he thought will not be aligned with the band's musical atmosphere. He jammed on those songs with his friend from "Hazen Street" David Kennedy which was intended to be a one-time project. Very quickly it evolved to a full-fledged band named "Box Car Racer", taking part in the band was also "Blink-182" drummer, Travis Barker.
The "side" project which released one self-titled album caused personal conflicts between DeLonge and Hoppus which already started on the fourth album of Blink, Hoppus was not a member of the "supergroup" and felt betrayed. As a result of the success of the "Box Car Racer" album, Geffen Records offered DeLonge a sols recording deal. Although DeLonge declined the offer this only amplified the tension between him and Hoopus.
(Photo: Spotify)
During 2004 DeLonge was not feeling like a part of the greatest Punk trio, he judged the band's priorities to be "mad, mad different" and claimed that they had simply grown apart as they aged. This communication breakdown led to heated exchanges resulting in his departure from the group.
DeLonge was psychologically hurt by the band's dissolution, likening it to a divorce and calling it a "traumatic experience" and a "disaster." He chose to abstain for six months from any interviews surrounding the issue and his future plans, instead, he concentrated on writing and recording in his home-based studio.
After six months of demo recordings in which he taught himself to play many instruments and produce music, he formed the band "Angles & Airwaves" which included former "Hazen Street" guitarist and high-school friend David Kennedy, former "Rocket from the Crypt" and "The Offspring" drummer Atom Willard and former "The Distillers" bass guitarist Ryan Sinn.
(Photo: discotech)
The album is inspired by a mix of both personal developments and global events. During production, DeLonge studied World War II, which he considered the "last great war clearly a battle between good and evil." He saw America enter a post-war period of prosperity and perceived it as an analogy for possibilities in his life. The album was encouraged by other personal crises as well, such as DeLonge's father's diagnosis of leukemia and his brother's deployment to Iraq.
The band intended for We Don't Need to Whisper is that the future could become a utopia.
The opening track "Valkyrie Missile" opens with a cinematic organ melody, 1980s-influenced guitars, and a quote from an astronaut: "Anybody out there?".
It is followed by "Distraction" which is filled with hand claps and a keyboard melody over verses lamenting death and destruction.
The song "Do It for Me Now" originated from a beat DeLonge created in 2004 for rapper Talib Kweli, the Morse code beat was later adapted by the band.
DeLonge described "The Adventure" as an "exhilarating ode to a beckoning future with a huge guitar sound reminiscent of The Cure."
The song "A Little's Enough" was inspired by a religious concept in which a God came to bring positive change on Earth when it faces terrorism, war, or famine.
The group has been described by DeLonge as more than a band, "an art project larger human themes and tackles them in different mediums," = "a multimedia project."
This has been seen in the group's films, live events, novel approach, and their future albums, already in this album you can feel and hear the dramatic aspect of the music, incorporated with sounds and dynamic which comes from the cinema.
The album peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 and has since sold nearly 800,000 copies. Three of the four singles released in promotion of the album reached the top 20 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, with "The Adventure" peaking at number five.
A documentary film based on the recording process of the album and the early history of the band, "Start the Machine", was released in 2008.
Listen to the album on Spotify, Apple Music