It might be the best AVA song since anything on iEmpire. Granted I haven't listened/remember any of the EPs he did and haven't heard any of the Love albums or Dream Walker since probably 2015 so I'm not the best judge.
Video treatment should have just been the "Rebel Girl" matching Tom's dance moves. I kept waiting for her to dance in the video and it never happened. "DANCE MY LITTLE REBEL GIRL AND SHOW ME HOW YOU MOVE!"
LOVE had some real gems, not the best as a whole... some of those albums started to feel a bit copy/paste... But The Dream Walker was a huge shift and has some of my favorite AVA material on it. Tunnels, Kiss With a Spell, Mercenaries, Bullets in the Wind, The Disease, Tremors... awesome run of songs. As someone who was kinda getting over old AVA, there honestly wasn’t much that I disliked about TDW...
The video could have been salvaged just a little bit by having him just not be there when she got back or just showing him getting over it quickly and not making a big deal out of it and the shots of the blood being just imagined. But no instead it's played for a laugh which is tone deaf enough on it's own much less the entire premise being misguided. And did Tom really write this this song about being friendzoned as a married 43 year old man?
Rumor is that Tom and his wife split a little while ago... and apparently he sold his home near San Diego and everything. Idk... Not saying that plays into the songwriting here at all... but who knows? Not 100% on any of this, I’ve just seen these talks going on for a while now.
Singing about being friendzoned doesn't bother me, as long as I enjoy the song. Mark's still singing about hopping fences and blaming his youth after all, lol. (Love BIOMY, ps) Video sounds... bad, though
Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge sells Del Mar home for $3.8 million I always assumed "Rebel Girl" was about Jen.
Yeah I think I'm pretty much over AVA, I just feel like Tom has been basically writing the same songs over and over again and his type of music just isn't for me anymore. From Love on they all just kind of blend to me. I think I liked a handful of songs off of Love Part 1 and maybe 2 songs off of Part 2. I can't remember a thing about Dream Walker except Wolf Pack and the chorus to BITW, I'm not sure I listened to it much after the first week it was released and really don't have a desire to go back and relisten to it. I will still check out his music because I'll always be curious to see what he puts out but I just don't see myself liking another AVA album as a whole outside of a handful of songs.
You should give TDW another shot, it's now my favorite AVA album for sure and I wasn't that into it when it first came out.
One of these days I'm going to force myself to go back and listen to the whole AVA discography, especially the EPs that I haven't heard yet. I really liked WDNTW and iEmpire a lot but can't remember the last time I listened to either in full (has to be 6 or 7 years) so I am curious to see how it holds up.
Dream Walker is def the best thing he's done since I-Empire. There's at least 4 or 5 songs WAAAY better than Rebel Girl on it. I really don't care for the chorus of this one tbh. Hate the middle part where he sings "come come I wanna tell ya" or whatever he says Not that I was listening to it often if ever but the music video probably ruined it even though it has nothing to do with the song lol
I just can't get into Rebel Girl that much. It's a fun song, but Tom's verse vocals are a bit too oversung, and I think he just sounds too old to pull off the cute/innocent love song. And the synth sounds are kinda cheesy & 80's to me. That being said, I'm starting to hear it on my local Alternative Station, Go 96.3, a bit because they're the promoter for AVA's winter show here, and I'm never mad to hear it. That chorus & bridge are phoenomenal.
I love Rebel Girl. The video is weird though, I don’t know how to feel about it, unless we’re supposed to get some kind of creepy horror movie vibe from it? The shots of the band playing are cool though.
Such a strange choice of video - doesn’t really fit the message of the song either. The couple / story from Menzingers “After the Party” would be the closer choice (please forgive me of even mentioning that absolute gem of a video in the same sentence as this shit show). Probably reading into / giving it way too much credit, but was the “WTF?” stinger a First Date call back?
shit guys. Looks like we have to cancel angels & airwaves now. Brb gonna throw all my merch in the trash and laser off this LOVE tattoo on my chest.