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.
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