Atom began his musical life in the now defunct punk band Fracture, who split in 1995. Since then Atom his been working alone, with only his synthesizer, Package, for company. Atom’s latest full-length album, ‘Attention! Blah Blah Blah’, sees him once again tackling a whole range of topics, from the conflict in Israel to marrying his grandmother; and all done in his now trademark humourous style.
For those of you who are yet to hear Atom And His Package, I feel a musical description is in order. However, this is a much more difficult task to accomplish than it might seem. On a very basic level, Atom plays pop punk, with the emphasis very much on pop. However, his faithful package adds a great deal in proceedings. If you took elements of the Rentals, Le Tigre and the Descendents and mixed them with early They Might Be Giants, then this would be very close to the result. In fact I feel disco pop punk is probably the best image to have in your head!
‘Attention! Blah Blah Blah’ features a collection of songs that will amuse, confound and annoy in equal measures. Atom is very much a man you will love or hate. He undoubtedly has the ability to write infectious and humourous songs, but he has one of those nasal voices that some people just won’t listen to. However, if you wash away all preconceptions and just strip the album down to the songs, there is a lot of enjoyment to be had from this album, especially on a warm summers day.
As mentioned, Atom covers a great range of topics in his song writing, and he also has the ability to wrap his lyrics around music that you will be humming for days. Perhaps the most political song on the album is the superbly titled ‘The Palestinians are not the same thing as the rebel alliance, jackass’, a song that criticises people for picking sides without any knowledge of the situation. Its just a shame the song doesn’t match the quality of the sentiments. However, when Atom mixes all his musical ingredients to perfection, you can’t help but enjoy a number of the songs on offer; he really does have the ability to write infectious pop songs. Great examples of these are ‘Mustache TV’, ‘I. Professional Gambler’, and one of the album standouts, the superb ‘Friend, Please stop smoking’.
At the end of the day you’ll either love this album or you won’t. Atom And His Package are a unique entity in today’s music scene, and should be applauded for their/his individuality. There are good and bad tracks on this album, but I doubt many people will be able to listen to it and resist the urge to sing along at some point.
Mark