Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons: Album Review
Atmosphere, When Life Gives You Lemons (Rhymesayers, 2008)
It's been a minute since we've heard from Atmosphere, the legendary (amongst people who are in college) emo rap duo out of Minnesota. 2005's dismal You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having must not have been the career boon they were expecting it to be. Will this new one fare better?
You can stream the entire album right now on Atmosphere's MySpace:
LIKE THE REST OF US
I can appreciate what they were going for here, but this just plain doesn't work as rap music. If it was gonna be an intro, it should have been a third as long as it is. Either way, they should have worked on a way to make the piano and that drum tap sound less tinny.
PUPPETS
On the other hand, "Like the Rest of Us" was at least a suitable introduction for an Atmosphere album that's generally more subdued than, say, 2005's joyless You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having. This is some soft shit.
THE SKINNY
This one has more of an electro feel, which I suppose is preferable to the piano on the first two joints. But the real issue seems to be that, umpteen years into their career, Atmosphere is still putting out albums that sound like motherfucking demos.
Also, is this literally a song about someone's skinny white dick, or is that supposed to be a metaphor for something? You know I can be dense like that. I might need five more years of college.
DREAMER
The point at which the album begins to pick up steam, as far as I'm concerned. The raps are more stories about people with... um, problems or whatever. The production might actually be the most musical thing Ant has ever come up with - which is to say, it's borderline musical. Like, he might be developing a sense of dynamics in his old age.
SHOULDA KNOWN
The sleazy-sounding lead single. What is this about, anyway? Banging broads with substance abuse issues? (which might actually be a growth opportunity for my, erm, personal life)? Ethical concerns aside, I've always considered that a growth opportunity for my, erm, personal life. Plus, it doesn't really count, if you're also wasted - which I would almost certainly be.
YOU
Another one of these ones where I'm where I'm wondering if Ant brought in ringers - in this case, dude from LCD Soundsystem. Check the way the beat drops out just before the chorus. That's a surprisingly good idea for an Atmosphere album. Also, dig Slug's singing on the chorus. If Atmosphere knows what's best for them, they'll make this the next single. White people with coke problems money are gonna love this.
PAINTING
Maybe the most old school-Atmosphere sounding thing on the album up until this point, after several tracks in a row of the new, DFA on an extremely low budget Atmosphere. You can't help but view it as kind of a let down.
YOUR GLASS HOUSE
More synths. This time they're especially doom and gloomy. Slug seems especially down on substance abuse these days. He must be getting too old to kick it like he used to. Next thing you know, he's gonna find Jesus. God forbid!
YESTERDAY
An especially affecting dead homies salute. It's hard to listen to this and not get a little bit verklempt, and you fruits know there's only a tiny lump of black coal where my heart used to be. For the sake of being purposely negative, I'll point out that I'm pretty sure this concept has been done before. Some Asian kid with the time and the interest-level would be well-served to go back and find the other instances.
GUARANTEES
Honestly? A little rap rock-y, even though it's way subdued. The first thing I thought of when I heard it was Staind. I'm sure it'll kill live though. You know how a little guitar tends to bring the monkey out of cracka-ass crackas.
ME
The girl in the background is a sample? Girls with voices like that give me a semi. She reminds me of the broad who sang on a couple of tracks on the last Jedi Mind Tricks album. Slug's singing on the chorus isn't half that bad, either. Nullus.
WILD WILD HORSES
Side B album filler, as evidenced by the couldn't be any more cliche song title. It's not especially bad or anything. I'm just saying. How many more stories are there gonna be on this album? Someone get Slug a subscription to a newspaper or something.
CAN'T BREAK
Is this what Lil' Jon meant by crunk rock? If so, it's no wonder he hasn't had an album out in years.
THE WAITRESS
Another one of these ones that sounds like it could be from eight years ago. Rap-wise and production-wise, this wouldn't have been out of place on that Lucy Ford album in the least bit.
IN HER MUSIC BOX
Notice how that last one leads into this, the requisite song at the end of your album about your kids. It's like an Atmosphere version of those Eminem songs about his kids. What is it about white rappers wanting to make songs about their kids, anyway? Black rappers will mention their kids in a song, but they won't actually rap about banal things their kids do.
COMMENTS: Not bad for an Atmosphere album, especially at this point in their career. There's a run of a few songs in a row towards the middle that's genuinely a gas to listen to. Ant either brought in some ringers, or - shit, who knows - came up with some good ideas on his own based, oddly enough, mostly around synthesizers. It turns out to be a revelation, and you wished they would've pursued this direction for the course of the entire album. A lot of the rest of this is just run of the mill late-period Atmosphere, i.e. limp, often tedious, but occasionally quite moving emo rap.
BEST TRACKS: "Dreamer" "You" "Yesterday"
BONUS VIDEO: "Shoulda Known"
BONUS VIDEO: "Guarantees"
