Atmosphere

Minneapolis's Atmosphere, fronted by Slug (a.k.a. Sean Daley) and producer Ant, aren't afraid of a little live instrumentation on the group's follow-up release to 2007's party album Strictly Leakage (which was offered online, quasi-In Rainbows-style, at no cost to you). In fact, album opener "Like the Rest of Us" initially feels more late-night piano-lounge confessional than beats-and-rhyme indie hip-hop, as if Slug drunkenly made his way up front of the dusty lodge, took to the stage, and started dumping his psyche into the mic, nodding as the piano-man recycled the same dusty loop beneath his contented but quietly deliberate flow. But, by the second track he has the crowd clapping along, and by the time "The Dreamer" takes hold, there is some veritable Roots-esque jamming and big, hooky chorus-mongering goin' on. Plus, the fun piano line and vocal rhythms on "Yesterday" so resemble Jurassic 5's classic "Concrete Schoolyard" that the earliest downbeat moments feel like a dream misremembered; never mind the club-ready "Humpty Dance" staccato bounce of lead single "Shoulda Known."

TV on The Radio's Tunde Adebimpe helps make "Your Glasshouse" an album highlight, lining the song's narrative and warbled electric swooshes with supplementary background vocals, while Tom Waits guests on penultimate "The Waitress," beatboxing over (below?) a storyline even he could admire. His wry dispensation of raw narratives is Slug's genius, and he offers plenty over the course of the album's fifteen tracks. Paint That Shit Gold serves as a perfect reminder that Atmosphere once nearly jumped to major label status, but that Slug and co. are much better off where they are, exploring their range, yet staying true to the independent spirit that has garnered them such a considerable and loyal underground following.

—William Morris
05/05/08