Atlas Genius – “When It Was Now”
Warner Bros.
-out Feb. 19
3 / 5

It was love at first listen: a pop single like “Trojans” doesn’t just fall into your lap every day. Sexy synth, grooving dance, catchy guitar hooks. We were stoked when Atlas Genius found us, welcoming everything the Adelaide, Australia group had to offer: confident energy, great, clean producing. We kept together for a while, but pretty soon things started popping up; loose toenail clippings, dirty dishes, well, Atlas Genius just started losing some of their lustre. A shrug now at any mention. What went wrong? Maybe it’s the moments after that are best to piece out what went wrong with such a promising relationship -erm, music group.

They had us at “Electric.” It’s well-crafted, inventive, and drags you onto the dance floor firmly by the hand. As we mentioned, this album is produced well, so it sounds good at first listen. But upon repeated playings, it becomes quite obvious that the groovy pop group is actually scraping around for lyrics. Beyond those two quality singles, the rest of the tracks drop into generic love-song mode, with a highlight (or low-light, perhaps) coming from the chorus of “All These Girls”: “All these girls are not the same as you.” “If So” doesn’t do much better. Ugh! Atlas Genius has wasted some quality riffs on their sub-par storytelling; it sounds good, until you really listen to it. A shame, indeed.

But you learn from things like this. You get older and wiser, less willing to fall for it. We’re just hoping you don’t fall for the same trap here. Take a pass.

Get a sample on their soundcloud site.

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