Tom Delonge isn't the first rocker to conclude that love is all you need—but with Angels & Airwaves, it just takes him a little longer than others to actually say that. Like 2006's "We Don't Need to Whisper," "I-Empire" is a sweeping conceptual piece with a message as big as its sound and just a bit more enigmatic. If "Whisper" was about leaving one world and finding another, "I-Empire" focuses on not only living in that new realm but also mastering it. Musically, the band demonstrates a better grip on dynamics, thanks partly to the locked-in rhythm section of drummer Adam "Atom" Willard and new bassist Matt Wachter. A&A also laces more techno and industrial sounds into the textured guitar drone that shimmers atop most songs, and it taps into the Brian Eno/Daniel Lanois phase of U2 on "Star of Bethlehem"/"True Love" and "Heaven."—Gary Graff