those of Robert Smith heard on tracks like "It Hurts", but likened it to a high school student with a job at Del Taco communicating with a drive-through microphone. Rolling Stone writer Christian Hoard summarized the record and the mixed reviews simply as "DeLonge yanks heartstrings with so-so results" and saw the atmospheric elements as excessive. Spin had a similar sentiment: "Here, his three sidemen elevate [DeLonge's] emo tendencies to something grander and more timelessly romantic—though somewhat less exciting. Blender scrutinized the composition of the album as it contains the "duller" aspects of Blink-182 accompanied with U2-influenced guitar chimes. Many critics arraigned the album to be pretentious and contrasted Angels & Airwaves with Blink-182. The A.V. Club journalist Kyle Ryan described his experience with We Don't Need to Whisper as 50 minutes of DeLonge demonstrating his musical skills. English magazine Uncut discerned his departure from Blink-182 and the album's serious tone. AllMusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine praised the differences in musical style between both bands, but remained polarized about the album and commented that "It may not make for a successful record, but it does make for an interesting one, particularly in how DeLonge's desire to be taken seriously has led him to use the serious music of his adolescence as a signifier that he's serious now, but We Don't Need to Whisper is too doggedly dour and amorphous to be more than a curiosity." Commercial performance The album sold 127,000 copies in its first week, and was certified Gold by the RIAA. It was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist in a Video, Best Special Effects in a Video and Best Editing in a Video for "The Adventure" as well as Best Band of 2006 for We Don't Need to Whisper. Acoustic EP On August 25, 2017, the band released an EP of acoustic renditions of We Don't Need to Whisper's first four songs. At the time of its release, DeLonge had been planning to direct a feature film titled "Strange Times", which was set to feature new music from the band. The EP was recorded and released as a means to "give the fans something while the band works on the soundtrack". The EP was also released in memory of the band's former producer, Jeff “Critter” Newell, who died in 2012. “Being in the studio brought back memories of AVA’s first album and