When Your Heart Stops Beating - Reception

Reception

The album received generally mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 60, based on 11 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews". AbsolutePunk's Drew Beringer deemed the album "a very diverse and potent debut album", and suggesting it as "one of the most honest records of 2006". The Washington Post described +44 as being in the same spirit as Blink-182 ("adorable, cuddly pop punk,") and The Gauntlet called the record the best post-Blink project. The Maneater's Joey Vergara compared the album to Blink-182's previous self-titled album, believing it improved and a solidified version. Aidin Vaziri, writing an editorial review for Amazon was in agreement and noted, "songs like "Baby Come On" and the spooky "Little Death" show the musicians finally delivering the substance that was promised on Blink 182's self-titled 2003 release." Deseret News named When Your Heart Stops Beating both better and "fuller" than former bandmate Tom DeLonge's new project, Angels & Airwaves' We Don't Need to Whisper, and The New York Times described as it as "zippier and catchier" than Whisper. The latter newspaper, however, ended their review with the conclusion that neither band was as good as Blink-182.

In contrast to The Daily Princetonian citing +44 for "lacking originality", The Avion Newspaper declared the band as "undoubtedly original and sure to please with every track". Channing Freeman of Sputnikmusic called the album "standard pop punk music", stating it was not a large departure from Blink-182. While many punk- and a few mainstream-oriented publications gave it a high grade, other namable sources such as Rolling Stone and Alternative Press were less impressed with the album.