|
Atom and his Package Attention! Blah Blah Blah (HOPELESS; www.hopelessrecords.com) 5.0
 Like a lot of us weirdos, Atom lives in his own world. A world without jocks. A world where synthesizers and punk rock go hand in hand. A world where the chubby dude gets the chick. world perfectly depicted in Attention! Blah Blah Blah , Atom and his Package’s 4th album.
It’s a fine line between naivete and irony, and Atom tight-rope walks it with ease, as awkwardly graceful as one of those hippo ballerinas from Fantasiia. Led by “The Package” (a music sequencer). The White Rabbit to Atom’s Alice, Atom digs through the bland monotony of the everyday middle-class American’s lifestyle, to find to his joy, little bottles that read "Drink Me". Annoyed with the lame substitute for entertainment that your television has to offer? Just follow Atom's lead in the song "Mustache T.V." and draw facial hair on the screen! Yow! Friends is just so much better with a John Waters-inspired 'tache.
Yes, these are the type of genius ideas that Atom regularly stumbles upon in his ongoing quest to make life funny again. "I bribed a garbage man/ I am a super bad boy again", he blissfully sings on one of the LP's poppier tracks, "I'm Downright Amazed at What I Can Destroy With Just A Hammer", in which Atom describes the joy of fixing up his house, re-discovering that inner toddler that used to terrorize the cat by chucking Tinker Toys at it.
Actually, A&HP songs are more diatribes than songs, great long rants about blatantly blind devotion in political issues (the spunky "The Palestinians Are Not The Same Thing As The Rebel Alliance, Jackass"), or maybe the reluctance one feels to produce offspring ("Dear Atom, You Do Not Want Children, Love Atom").
The only track on the album to not sport Atom's signature ranting/rapping is, not surprisingly, the LP's only cover song, Radon's Lying To You. To balance out the lack of his usual 5,000 word/minute pace, Atom successfully blends even cheesier keyboards than on the previous tracks, with a sing-along, heartbreaking chorus. If you couls actually call the noises Atom makes singing (I'd rather define it as a soulful whine). But who says you have to actually hit those notes to be painfully emotional? Attention! Blah Blah Blah is filled to the brim with bite-size packs of punk-pop pleasure (Abba meets Rancid meets a funny version of Weird Al Yankovich), all dished up and ready to serve. You'd have to be insane to turn that down.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed