If you sought out Nicole Atkins’ second album, the follow-up to 2007’s ‘Neptune City’ on the strength of the single ‘You Come To Me’, you might be forgiven for expecting a gutsy new-wave influenced rock-orientated album.
Opener 'Vultures', which appeared as the single's AA / B-side continues to fuel such expectations with a sassy, slightly sleazy new-wave flavoured rock-out. But thereafter, it's very much a collection of mainstream rock (electric and acoustic) by numbers, interspersed with a few ill-fitting diversions, such as 'My Baby Don't Lie', a rather painful country-rock hoedown. The performances are technically competent, of course, and the compositions are fundamentally sound, but I just can't engage. It's club rock, a step up from a wedding covers band. Nothing wrong with that, of course: such bands serve a purpose in the scheme of things. Being the stars of anyone's CD collection isn't one of them.
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Nicole Atkins Online
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