What was supposed to be an acoustic rendering to celebrate 10 years of the first Angels & Airwaves record “We Don’t Need To Whisper;” “We Don’t Need To Whisper acoustic EP” offers enough nostalgia and re-imagining to satisfy fans until new Angels & Airwaves songs hit.

In 2008, this writer had the opportunity to interview Tom DeLonge backstage at Angels & Airwaves show opening for Weezer, and after the interview it was suggested to DeLonge that he someday should do an AVA acoustic record since the songs oddly translated well stripped down. DeLonge’s manager at the time agreed, and fast forward to Angels & Airwaves recent acoustic work- and like everything DeLonge does has been teased or delayed for the past year.

Now, this EP isn’t fully acoustic as there are keyboards and other spacey-sound effects here and there; look at Angels & Airwaves AOL acoustic session for a better representation of how AVA’s arena rock can sound purely acoustic. For waiting so long for just four songs that are just being re-worked acoustically could have fans shake their heads, but the songs are enjoyable enough to soften the blow of not having a full “We Don’t Need To Whisper” acoustic.

The added keys on “Do It For Me” sound beautiful and elevates the song, and “Distraction” takes on a whole new light and stands out the most with the electronic hand claps added and overall refreshing feel. There are some questionable choices here like the removing the great bass intro to “Valkyrie Missile” and replacing with an electronic intro that sounds like keyboard introduction to blink-182 song “Pretty Little Girl.”

My interview with Tom Delonge ( blink-182, AVA) from mike damante on Vimeo.