+44 – ‘When Your Heart Stops Beating’ (Interscope) Released 12/02/07

Normally when a band disbands its ex-members like to head off in new directions to push the musical boundaries which they were previously constricted to challenge. +44 – which consists of ex Blink-182er’s Travis Barker and Mark Hoppus – don’t seem to agree with this however. New single, ‘When Your Heart Stops Beating,’ could be straight off a Blink-182 album. There’s the catchy riff, the thumping power chords and the all important sing-along line (“I’ll be there when your heart stops beating / I’ll be there when you last breath’s taken away.”) that you’d come to expect the duo’s previous band to produce. Consequently therefore, although +44’s single isn’t bad, it’s not exactly inspiringly either.