One great band to heal your soul from anguish, depression, or other negative feelings is Angels & Airwaves.
A lot of the rejuvenating power of Angels & Airwaves owes itself to the lead singer, Tom Delonge, and a personal transformation he was going through as he was putting the band together. Reeling from painkillers for a back injury, and from the exit-stress of leaving his former band—Blink-182—Delonge claims to have been “searching for the new and correct path in life while [he] personally was losing [his] mind."
However, their second album, “I-Empire,” speaks a clearer message than the passionate-but-confused “We Don’t Need to Whisper.” Delonge comments, "It reflects an idea that the world is yours for the taking, and all that exists, exists inside you. It can be something as trivial as a personal struggle, or as grand as the inescapable idea of world peace." With a clearer direction, "I-Empire" is described by Delonge as the second-half of "We Don't Need to Whisper."
The Healing Process
If you have come to Angels & Airwaves for healing, each album has something to offer. Perhaps you’d start with the self-assertion of “We Don’t Need to Whisper.” The very title allows you to not know what you’re supposed to say, as long as you say it loudly. The album is layered with war scenes, promises etched in stone tablets, the remains of demolished cities, cleansed, golden children that are running down from the horizon, and pleas to the listener to either join him, hear him, or reassure him. Lyrics include “I can’t live, I can’t breathe, unless you do this with me,” “The ocean is on fire / The sky turned dark again,” and “You know, I won’t say sorry…You know what it’s like to believe / It makes me wanna scream.”
“We Don’t Need to Whisper” takes the emotionally wrought listener into the labyrinth of their own desires, hopes, and anxieties. It is the celebration of movement without complete control, but enough control to have a destination.
“I-Empire” is less layered, but just as passionate as its former album. It follows a straighter path to contentment and inner peace. While it’s not without lyrics of utter pain—“Tears, spilling out, across a dead end street / Your house, is a lonely box that holds you”—it is also more trusting of life—“If the world were to die, the light would guide you.”
Angels & Airwaves will probably make you feel at home in the pain of heartbreak, the frustration of life, and the belief that there has to be an answer and a reason to live again. With an echoed, airy rock sound comparable to U2, and a sufficient use of chimes, they truly have the angelic, revelatory personality that their name denotes. If they could leave you with one message from their music, it would probably be, “Here we go, life’s waiting to begin.”
Read more: "Angels & Airwaves: Music for the Healing Process: Reasons to Make them your Heartache's Band of Choice" - http://pop-music.suite101.com/article.cfm/angels_airwaves_music_for_healing#ixzz09hB5ueQ1
