“When Your Heart Stops Beating” by +44

The title track of +44's 2006 debut album, "When Your Heart Stops Beating" finds Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker regrouping as a new outfit, Hoppus singing lead and playing bass, Barker driving the song from behind the kit, the two of them producing alongside Jerry Finn, who also mixed it.

Barker built the whole thing on the kick drum, treating it like an old four-on-the-floor ska tune played by a rock drummer who doesn't know any better, and the skittering percussion drew comparisons to Stewart Copeland. Over it, Craig Fairbaugh and Shane Gallagher's guitars bark with a wiry, British-flavored new wave snap. Hoppus drew the story from Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen: a love so total it tells the rest of the world to get lost. It was the only single from the record to chart, climbing to 14 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.