+44 - When Your Heart Stops Beating Album Review

+44
When Your Heart Stops Beating
Album Review

Plus forty-four, for the uninitiated, are the latest project of various punk scene veterans, most notably the tattoo collection on legs that is Travis Barker, ex Blink 182 drummer.

'When Your Heart Stops Beating' is less of a deviation from the Blink 182 sound than perhaps Angels and Airwaves is, but this certainly has a flavour distinctly different to that that birthed it. There is still the same melodic punk content on tracks such as 'Baby Come On' and the title track 'When Your Heart Stops Beating', but the humour and spiky, slightly antagonistic flavour of Blink 182 are missing. Instead we are left with a slightly darker, introspective sound, which feels a lot more serious.

This is by no means a criticism, and the album actually feels as though it has some real maturity to it, and thus a chance of longevity. It's a cliché, sure, but considering this is a 'drummer's' album, it's actually rather good.

Richard Edge