Tom DeLonge Goes Acoustic on New Song ‘The Invisible Parade’
Tom DeLonge is moving ahead with his ambitious post-Blink-182 plans, releasing a new song, “The Invisible Parade,” from his upcoming LP, To the Stars…Demos, Odds and Ends, the first of four albums he’s promised this year.
“The Invisible Parade” finds DeLonge strumming a forlorn acoustic progression and singing in a voice more dulcet than his traditionally nasal vocals. The track touches on the psychological impasse of yearning for thrills with harmful consequences, and while they could apply to DeLonge’s punk past, the images of war and coming home might have been inspired by the musician’s brother, a Navy lieutenant who served in Iraq.
The song also arrives with a lyric video, in which DeLonge walks woefully around with a battered guitar. While the initial shots of him in an empty hallway seem overly melodramatic, the heaviness doesn’t crush his sense of humor. At one point, he walks through a restaurant where a lone patron angles her starstruck face right at the camera, while the clip ends with DeLonge pushing his guitar in a shopping cart through an empty supermarket parking lot.
To the Stars…Demos, Odds and Ends is scheduled for release on April 21st and will reportedly be followed by another DeLonge solo LP and two albums with his group Angels and Airwaves. DeLonge’s bevy of forthcoming material comes on the heels of an acrimonious split with Blink-182 earlier this year.
While Blink drummer Travis Barker has demanded DeLonge “man up and quit” the band, the guitarist said his other projects and obligations prevented him from entering into a contract with the band to record the follow-up to their 2011 reunion album, Neighborhoods. “I can’t just slam the brakes and drop years of development, partnerships and commitments at the snap of a finger,” he said in January.