Lower Than Atlantis live under a microscope. Perhaps more than any other band in an increasingly fit-to-burst UK scene, their every action has been pored over and scrutinised to the point where you’d excuse the Hertfordshire lot if they drowned in their own paranoia – for every critic claiming their signing to Island Records or opening of the Reading and Leeds main stage a marker for the scene, there was a spotty teenager on the internet slashing at their achievement with the token and tired “sellout” remark.
Where most bands – and, indeed, individuals – would no doubt crumble under this kind of pressure, though, Lower Than Atlantis thrived. Their cocksure demeanour aiding in their ‘dirt off your shoulder’ attitude to the naysayers, the band barrelled onwards and upwards. The LTA train may have hit a brick wall with the aforementioned major label debut and subsequently retreated to a home studio for an atypical rest stop, but now they’re back and gunning for the big-time more than ever. Self-titling this record is the band’s strongest statement of intent to date, and it’s worth every second of the wait.
Anyone still waiting for a follow-up to ‘Far Q’ should know where the door is by now. LTA have never been content to retread old ground, and with ‘Lower Than Atlantis’, this mantra is clearer than ever. Electronics glimmer throughout ‘Ain’t No Friend’ and strings bring a regal flair to ‘Criminal’’s musings on the nature of their major label past (“Is it really selling out if we just used them for their funds?” prompts the ever-boisterous frontman Mike Duce). There’s a clear love of all of music’s various facets that echoes throughout the record, and a bloody-minded determination not to be restricted by a scene or image thrust upon them.
The punk or hardcore of LTA days gone by it is not, but ‘Lower Than Atlantis’ is a smorgasbord of perfectionist songwriting, and Duce’s partnership with former Proceed man turned songwriter extraordinaire Dan Lancaster has never been so successful. Duce’s work with acts such as 5 Seconds Of Summer may have been unfairly maligned by the holier-than-thou of the punk world, but its influence feeds an unashamed love of pop into the record’s lighter moments, such as ‘Emily’ – a track reportedly sought after by One Direction’s team after drummer Eddy Thrower lent his sticks to a track on their last record.
The lyrics still tread the fine line between pragmatism and parody, but they sway closer to right side of the fence. While LTA may come across as Duce’s baby more than ever, his step away from the overly autobiographical lyricism of their older work has given the group an increasingly relatable, anthemic edge – most notable in recent single ‘English Kids In America’’s stadium-bothering chorus.
Time away has crafted ‘Lower Than Atlantis’ into the truly world-conquering record the band have always strived for. It’s a collection which finally sees Lower Than Atlantis able to scrutinise their own craft to the extent they’ve always been subject to from others, and as a result they’ve written the most bombastic, anthemic and self-assured record of their career. “I’m not giving up til we’re number one,” smirks Duce on the album’s closing track, and the band have never seemed closer to following contemporaries like Royal Blood all the way to such lofty heights.
TOM CONNICK