KINKY
Atlas
Nettwerk America
Atlas is ripe with surfy-guitar riffs, danceable grooves and quirky lyrics…not unlike their obvious influence Cake. Lead Cake-man John McCrea even does the vocal duties on “The Heaphonist” and one wouldn’t even know that the back up band was different unless you were told. Sure, “Snapshot” adds a little Odelay-era Beck to the mix and the percussion and multi-lingual slant of “Presidente” and “Pos Que So Vengan” add in tons of spicy Latin flavor but otherwise, it’s just like Cake’s kid brother. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Both “Not Afraid” and “Airport Feelings” up the ante on that style and give McCrea something to top when he gets his band back in the studio.
Chris McKay /concertshots.com