Nicole Atkins - Neptune City
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Free Music Notes for Neptune City
Free Music Review: Can't Stop Playing This One..
Hit: 5 Stars
Every few months I find a CD that sort of becomes enshrined in my CD player and Ipod. This is now the case for Nicole Atkins and her album Neptune City. I literally have to listen to this one a few times every day. It's truly such an amazing creative endeavor. I had not heard of Nicole Atkins before seeing her CD in Borders and, being beguiled by the unique cover art, I decided to listen to the samples. Honestly, the samples didn't grab me, but after listening to The Way It Is in its entirety on the internet, I went back to Borders and got this one, and it's been in constant rotation ever since. I love Nicole's raspy yet youthful voice and how she uses it to express the deepest place of each song. The lyrics and the arrangements are dark yet hopeful, and even though there are melancholic undercurrents in each song, they make you feel so alive. This is also such a brilliant coming together of vintage and modern sound.
I am really happy to have found an artist that confirms that there is still awesome music out there just waiting to be heard. I hope Nicole's career and creative energy continues to flourish, and she keeps the great music coming.
Free Music Review: Great new talent
Hit: 5 Stars
Love this CD. Nicole Atkins' writing and sound is distinctive and a little addictive. Watch her Letterman appearance on YouTube. She is adorable.Free Music Review: Awesome!
Hit: 5 Stars
I first heard of Nicole Atkins on Late Night with David Letterman. She rocked the house. I purchased Neptune City for the third track - The Way It Is - but I was amazed by all of the songs on the CD. Not a bad one in the bunch.Free Music Review: Wow!! Nicole has really broken out on this one
Hit: 5 Stars
Wow!! Nicole has really broken out on this one.
The first time I saw Nicole it was in a coffee shop at the Jersey Shore. Her sultry voice and style belied her actual age. Between the Springstein covers she did to appease the requests and tastes of the pre-drinking age crowd she would slip in one or two of her originals. All but a clueless few who were present would stop whatever it was they were doing and listen...and appreciate... the slightly dark lyrics or the tune would linger and would sometimes stay with you through your ride home. Upon seeing Nicole on the David Letterman show I bought the Neptune City cd and confirmed and am proud to have recognized long ago that she has something special. I can't rightly classify the music as alternate or rock or folk or whatever but after hearing and reading the lyrics and listening to the performances across the tracks of the cd it is clear she has grown, is ready to perform for the masses and has not given in to any influence from the "music business" with whom she must surely have to deal on a large scale. The songs are "Nicole" and after awhile, I still can't get some of the tunes out of my mind. Bravo Nicole.
Free Music Review: Nicole Atkins: Catch Her...If You Can
Hit: 5 Stars
After a half year's delay, Nicole Atkins and the Sea's long-awaited official major-label debut, Neptune City, is finally here. Those of you who are familiar with her prior EPs, 2004's Party's Over and last year's Bleeding Diamonds, have heard many of these songs before, but this time, they've received star treatment from producer Tore Johansson (New Order, Franz Ferdinand), a host of studio musicians, and finishing touches provided by none other than mixman extraordinaire Rick Rubin (the cause of the delay...I think I'd delay my record too if Rubin wanted to get his mitts on it). Old fans, I urge you not to miss out, and potential new fans, you've gotta get this record.
If you're in the latter group, with a glance at Atkins' striking yet unsmiling face peering out at you from the cover's dreamy, pasteled artwork, you might readily dismiss her as just another lightweight chick singer-songwriter. Don't do it. Nicole Atkins will connect with you. No matter how hard you try to distance yourself, her lyrics reach into your psyche and say, "Hey! I've been there, too. And it's okay. You'll be fine. Just look at me. I turned out all right; you will, too!"
Atkins' music has been described as soaring, and this CD is no exception. Johansson rightly supports her very big voice with lush arrangements and equally big sound. It's very Phil Spectoresque, especially on tracks like "The Way It Is" and "Party's Over." The stripped-down version of "War Torn" on Bleeding Diamonds bears very little resemblance to the version here. However, Atkins' compositions hold up remarkably well whether you are hearing them on the CD with the full complement of Sea musicians (the four Ds: Dave, Dan, Derek and the other Dan) plus the orchestral session help hired by Johansson, or whether you're hearing Atkins play them solo acoustic in a local coffeeshop somewhere in Monmouth County.
The tunes cover a vast degree of territory geographically, emotionally and stylistically, but Atkins' powerful, confident alto ties them all together in a complete, balanced package of treats for your ears. Obviously, it's her voice that makes you sit up and pay attention, but the tracks' pace and variety will keep you guessing. The band dives right in with the cautiously optimistic rocker "Maybe Tonight," takes it down a notch with the lamenting "Together We Are Not Alone," and in the CD's pi?ce de r?sistance, "The Way It Is," starts slow but builds to a crescendo of passion and longing, virtually daring you to stop listening. The bombast, strings, and unrelenting "Fourth of July, Brooklyn's on Fire!" hook in "Brooklyn's On Fire!" is the tonal antithesis of the quiet, reflective title track. And "War Torn"'s solemn strings underscore a glimpse at the sad end to a relationship ripped apart by circumstances beyond anyone's control.
Like many artists, Atkins makes wry observations about places she's been and people she's met and translates them into song. She grew up in Neptune City, went to school in North Carolina, spent considerable time in Australia, lived in Brooklyn for a while, and is now back in Asbury Park. Songs like "Cool Enough" capture the wanderlust in a young girl; in lines like, "This place has got nothing that I could want...so take me with you," you feel her desire to get the hell out of Dodge. Though young, she's also wise enough to realize that "Someday, I might feel different." And sure enough, after trying on other cities and countries for size, she's ended up right back in Asbury Park, just next door to the place which, as she said in "Neptune City," she wasn't sure if she could go home to again.
Welcome, back, Nicole. Go ahead and tour the world, but please keep coming home to Jersey where you belong.