Album Review: Lower Than Atlantis – Changing Tune

From albums that feature symbols of a violent and poor upbringing (a smashing television and hands holding pocketfuls of shrapnel), Lower Than Atlantis have chosen to represent their move to a major label (Island Records) with a foetal elephant floating in space surrounded by a dizzying array of eyes. “The new album is our version of a 70s acid trip,” says vocalist Mike Duce, “and the artwork is what we feel best represents that idea.” Looking at it, I have never been more nervous to spin the disc inside.

With track-titles like “Cool Kids”, “PMA” (presumably Positive Mental Attitude) and “Showtime”, I needn’t have worried. In a nutshell, Changing Tune represents a collision of candy-coated pop sensibilities with their more familiar, lyrically-introspective, punk rock ethos. The band’s steady manoeuvering to a position of strength based around a lightning-quick BPM and anaemic lyrics backed by cloying aaaah’ed choruses is even more noticeable here than it was for sophomore album World Record. Suddenly, LTA are more You Me At Six than they are Funeral For A Friend. Viewed in one light it marks a growing up of sorts for Watford’s finest; a gentle mellowing of delivery from their raw, feisty beginnings. Of course, viewed in another it might be seen as a deliberate move to a more mainstream sound in an attempt to secure more sales, particularly seeing as it comes with a generous laquer of glossy production applied.

Essentially, “Love Someone Else” and “Go On Strike” are vapid, over-simplistic, day-glo pop-punk songs with a single, undeniably strong hook. If these are intended to be the equivalents of addictive, thought-provoking tracks like Far Q‘s “Taping Songs Off The Radio” or World Record‘s “Beech Like A Tree” or “(Motor) Way Of Life” then it suggests a dearth of quality material – honestly, writing three albums in three years was pushing it anyway.

It’s the slightly darker, edgier tracks that deserve more of your attention – the crafty, minor-chord rebukes of “Wars With Words”, the abusively fuzzed-up guitar riff of “Normally Strange”, the jagged rock of the compulsive “PMA”, and the thinking man’s ballad “Scared Of The Dark”. Interestingly, with those tracks out of the way, the album ends by twisting up the band’s pop-punk dial again and again they begin to drift from their defining identity. Depending on whether you dig the style you’ll either come out of “Cool Kids” and “I Know A Song That Will Get On Your Nerves” covered in sweat or, like me, bashing your head against the wall.

One final task awaits. Having consumed Changing Tune it is now time to go back and challenge Duce’s view of it. The only parts of the album where I can recognise anything that can be connected to “a 70s acid trip” are perhaps the two-chord “Prologue”, which comes replete with a dislocated echo chamber vocal, the gnarly verses of “Normally Strange”, and the odd, notably brief, inclusions of reverberating feedback, twittering birds and whalesong. Perhaps Duce is letting us in on some massive in-joke (it wouldn’t be the first time). I mean, even these moments would be better described as peculiar anomalies rather than hint at anything particularly mind-mangling. If Lower Than Atlantis conjured the title Changing Tune to highlight they had moved towards a more predictable end-product then they can consider it a mission accomplished.

Also online (with samples) @ The NewReview = http://thenewreview.net/reviews/lower-than-atlantis-changing-tune

Album Review: Lower Than Atlantis – World Record

Working out of Dear Old Blighty, as I do, has its advantages when it comes to getting an early taster of something local and something truly brilliant. Before they get huge, having that opportunity to review early releases and talk about them with bands like Sylosis, The Plight, Savage Messiah, Made No Sense, Twin Atlantic and Malefice has definitely been an honour. Some of those bands, you might not even have heard of yet (tell your friends it was The NewReview who tipped you off), others you will. Occasionally it falls on us to let the rest of the world know what they’re missing out on, and that’s the best part of writing for an American website; arms across the ocean with a worldwide audience listening in. This brings me neatly to Lower Than Atlantis – a band that has got several here at TNR quite excited. Here I hold a copy of their sophomore album which has surprisingly popped up on the battering ram that is Sumerian Records. It’s the follow up to their stunning debut full-length, the niftily-titled Far Q and, if you’re a fan of rock music, I have four little words for you – your new favourite band.

This Hertfordshire quartet have taken the calculating brain of rock, the energetic heart of punk and the shadowy soul of pop to create a monster with rapid-fire rhythms, bruising stop-gaps, heartily melodious vocals and addictively slick riffs. It’s like listening to the genius of early-Biffy Clyro after it’s been welded to the pop hooks of Funeral For A Friend. I can also hear Reuben in this, perhaps with the sunnier side of Lower Definition thrown in for good measure.

There is much in World Record that picks up where Far Q left off, but plenty more that has seen them drop the cheese; step up to the plate; basically “grow up” as vocalist/guitarist Mike Duce puts it. He reveals that “the tunings for most of the songs have dropped two whole steps to add a darker feel.” On top of this, they recorded at Outhouse Studios in Reading with the result being a smoother, less gritty production (their debut was recorded in an office space above a nearby factory). If anything, almost unexpectedly, the end result is an album that leans more towards the pop than the punk, with their mainstream side peeking through on tracks like “High At Five”. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, right? Singles “Beech Like The Tree” and “The Deadliest Catch” are now chunky, crisply hooked and will have you bouncing all over the room, whilst the painfully sincere vocals and attention-grabbing, clean strings of the adjacent “Uni 9mm” and “Another Sad Song” will make you believe you can actually hear the cracks as Duce breaks apart. “Flashback to 1999 / It’s the Summer, not a cloud in the the sky / Present day, things have changed / Summer’s over and it rains here every day” – when lyrics like this are delivered at a snail’s pace, wrapped up in a faltering, croaky regional accent, you can’t help but be ensnared by his story.

Picking at a few stray ends we find, despite the twelve tracks, it’s not the longest of albums. The quirky one and a half minutes of “Marilyn’s Mansion” feels like a bit of filler, and the fiery gang vocals that work so well on “Bug” are overpowering when they turn into woah-ohs for “Could You? Would You?” Hypercritical, yes. But, on the flip side, there are so many little pieces of brilliance – the cute little harmonies on “(Motor) Way Of Life” and “High At Five”, Declan Hart’s throbbing basslines that boil up spectacularly for “Working For The Man By Day, Sticking It To The Man By Night”, the jinking top-end picking on “Beech Like A Tree”, the crystal-clear string-scratching on “The Deadliest Catch” and the barely-disguised spiked punch of “R.O.I.” All these things prove that Lower Than Atlantis have talent by the bucket-load. Their songwriting ability, the immediacy of the delivery, the lightness of touch – I could go on. And, of course, it’s all radio-friendly too, so LTA may soon be impossible to escape even if you wanted to. At the end of the day though, this is all about Mike Duce handing you his heart on a plate. Whether you take it or not depends entirely on you.

Also online (with samples) @ The New Review = http://thenewreview.net/reviews/lower-than-atlantis-world-record

Far Q review = http://johnskibeat.blogspot.com/2010/04/album-review-lower-than-atlantis-far-q.html

Album Review: Lower Than Atlantis - Far Q

My review - originally posted on TLOBF:

Having drawn inspiration from 90’s grunge, rock and punk-pop bands, it follows that Lower Than Atlantis have developed a bit of a penchant for creating dirty, aggressive music loaded with spiked barbs of indignation. Having undergone their fair share of sticky patches where they nearly gave up after several members bade them farewell (it’s not clear whether their band name is a reaction to the situation), they have experienced what they term a “metamorphosis”. This debut album sees them re-energised and delving into the gritty subjects of recession, unemployment and a disenchanted youth...

Full review = http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/03/lower-than-atlantis-far-q/