Atmosphere Seven's Travel LP
After hearing and reading so much about Atmosphere for so long, and having liked what I heard of the “Lucy Ford” album as well as liking Slug’s vocals and lyrical content, I looked forward to picking up “Seven’s Travels” as my first Atmosphere release. I was left a little disappointed. Their first album on major US punk label Epitaph was being hyped to high level and whilst there are some moments of class and sophistication on the album, I felt that the production was quite weak in places.
Lyrically, Slug does a good job and his vocals are extremely enjoyable, especially on single “Cats Van Bag” and brilliant album-closer “Always Coming Back Home to You”. I found Ant’s production on the album to be a little boring and too standard in places. For such a renowned underground indie figure, the sound is quite commercial in places and I found this to make the album patchy and uninteresting in key points where it needed to be taken up a notch. Lyrical concerns range from “woman who hates themselves” to various metaphors on life and self-deprecation. The delivery is good throughout, although there is perhaps too much use of double-tracking Slug’s voice for emphasis and effect. This album is probably the one that will take them to the mainstream, and as an Epitaph release, the marketing and promotion will probably result in a higher profile and more magazine coverage for the band. I think they have delivered an album that matches this life on a major label and accordingly they deliver a more accessible sound. It’s not a great album, it’s good album with good moments. To me, it sounds a little overproduced in places and the drum patterns could have been more imaginative and less repetitive, the snares could have been lower in the mix.
All in all, this is an album that disappointed me because I expected more from it. I wanted to hear something truly groundbreaking and mind-blowing, instead I was treated to the sound of a band settling down for the creative long haul and delivering a safe dormant album.
- Nikesh Shukla
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