Album Review: Atlas Genius - When It Was Now

After a sterling debut that saw their single, Trojans, leap into the #4 spot on the US Billboard's Alternative Songs chart (as if breaking the American market wasn't hard enough), the brothers from South Australia have taken inspiration from the likes of Phoenix, thrown in a little '80s-inspired synth-pop and topped it off with the soft disco hums of the '70s.

The Frankie Goes To Hollywood-inspired Electric opens the album. The trippy synth-board-driven track sets the pace for the rest of the album – a heightened and flighty pop-disco extravaganza. The catchy If So showcases the brothers' knack for a dream-pop hook, with heavy guitars keeping beat beneath lead singer Keith Jeffery's breathless vocals. The perfect, albeit simple chord progression of Trojans never wanes, regardless of how many times you hear Jeffery wail “Like Trojans in my head”.

On A Day is all too formulaic, borrowing Trojans' elegant simplicity, tweaking and roughing it up only slightly. Centred On You drips with glossy '80s synth, while All These Girls opens by sliding back on down into the dream-pop sphere, dishing out plenty of addictive hooks as Jeffrey warbles, “All these girls are not the same/All these girls are not the same as you”. Across the self-produced album Jeffery's vocals appear to have been smoothed to a point of neutrality and stretched to a tautness that sees them simply exist amongst the synths and fuzz-guitars, rather than bursting through.

A same-sameness permeates much of the album, but the brothers do what they do well, making the repetition just that much more bearable.