Album Reviews

When Life Gives You Lemons | Atmosphere

By Ashwin ⋅ November 26, 2008 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

For as long as I can remember, and for every different grade of melancholia, I’ve had a “sad CD” -– be it Nirvana’s suicidal opus, Unplugged in New York, Beck’s hollow and harrowing Sea Change, or Thom Yorke’s mindless Eraser. Atmosphere, and the 1998 release Overcast, started there, too. Slug’s poetically pitiful rhymes and Ant’s weighty beats made it feel okay to feel… well, not so okay.

But there’s a distinct line between obnoxious, and just plain whiny; for every Kurt Cobain there are dozens of Courtney Loves and Amy Winehouses, falling stars we’ll pat on the back with one hand just as soon as we’ll grab their collar with the other and toss them the fuck out.

The key difference of course is if all you can write about is yourself, you’re bound to run out of material faster than you can create it. So, that was the question for grungy hip-hop artist Atmosphere: was there more to their rhymes than just sardonic stories of love lost and self-flagellation?

The title of this year’s release, When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint that Shit Gold, answered the call. Yeah, Slug’s still got problems. But so do we all. With Lemons, Atmosphere takes their formula for success and turns it on its head: Suddenly, the same haunting beats and lyrics are about the bum who finds family in “The Waitress,” the single mother who finds her “little man was the first man she believed in,” the tormented girl who finds refuge from domestic violence “In Her Music Box.” Turns out, Atmosphere isn’t just about one man’s sadness—it’s about the comfort that comes from sadness shared.

As with each of their albums, the sound stays true to the message, and the gasping poetry of Slug’s rhymes are again unparalleled. In “Can’t Break” industrial riffage echoes amongst tales of “Progress that came with a cost” while soulful keys and guitar licks hang above the group’s signature discord in more visceral tracks like “Puppets” and “Painting.” Some of this may seem like a departure from earlier, harder-hitting records like Lucy Ford and God Loves Ugly (and it is), but long-time fans will be happy to discover Ant makes sure the beats still drop hard when they need to, and the hooks in “Your Glasshouse” and “You” are as tight as they have ever been.

Of course, I’ll still go back to those older, rougher records on overcast days when I’m looking for a hip-hop dark enough to match my mood; but Atmosphere’s latest displays a dynamic, mature sound that utilizes the same vocal artillery to reassure us that as long as we’ve got problems, they’ll be around to write the anthems.

Tags: hip hop