Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold

I have three Atmosphere albums - Godlovesugly, Seven's Travels and When Life Gives You Lemons... , their most recent back when I was getting into them. A week after I found Godlovesugly in London I found this copy in Spillers in the hip-hop section, which I didn't check out anywhere near as frequently as I ought to have during the Tuesday-record-from-Spillers year. I had been enjoying Godlovesugly and was easily convinced by the limited edition coloured vinyl.

When Life Gives You Lemons... is a mixed bag for me. Much like the other two albums of theirs I have, there are some great songs - really genuinely brilliant rap songs. But, like the other two, there are far too many songs and a few of them that are either really annoying or really unnecessary. Case in point is the opening duo: Like the Rest of Us is both annoying and unnecessary and does nothing for me except to ruin the opening of the album; Puppets on the other hand is one of the best songs on the album and would make for a far better opener. If I'd heard Puppets as the first song on the first listen to this record, I'd have been in a much better mood than I was after hearing Like the Rest of Us. (Incidentally, Seven's Travels tries that approach with Trying to Find a Balance as the first proper song. The result is that the rest of the album can't hold up what they've started, so maybe there's method in their madness).

There are some other interesting moments on the album - Dreamer is a fine example of Slug crafting a rich story (which makes for a pleasant change to his usual self-loathing), Your Glass House is a bleak tale that most people can relate to a bit and Guarantees is the highlight of the second record by a long way. Wild Wild Horses and The Waitress are good songs too.

What it comes down to, I suppose, is that I'm just not that much of a fan of Atmosphere. After this album I got Seven's Travels a few months later on cd and realised I should probably stop buying Atmosphere albums. I don't think they're incapable of writing an album of songs that I want to hear, I just don't think they're ever going to make such an album. And that's fine - it just means they're not the band for me.

Format: Double 12"
Tracks: 15
Cost: £13 new
Bought: Spillers
When: 23/09/08
Colour: Yellow
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Atmosphere - Godlovesugly

The first time I heard Atmosphere was in my friend Jon's car as we drove across the Severn Bridge. I can't remember where we were going mind you but it was definitely on the bridge as we crossed from Wales into England. I didn't know Jon very well at the time, but he was in a band with a friend and had an interesting taste in music - a mix of punk, 90's rock and hip-hop. I have no idea what Atmosphere songs we listened to, but I enjoyed the strange beats and intense rapping.

A short while later I found this second-hand triple-LP copy of Godlovesugly in Reckless Records in London and figured it was worth picking up - I hadn't seen any of their albums about and it was in pretty good condition and well-priced at £10.

My feelings about Atmosphere have been fairly consistent over the 8 years since I bought this album - I enjoy them but find them hard work. I bought a couple of other albums and found the same thing time and time again - each album has some incredible songs - here you have really great songs like The Bass and the Movement, Fuck You Lucy and One of a Kind which really stand out. On the other hand, there are some really cringe-worthy moments, especially around Slug's rather low opinion of himself (or, at least, his assumption of others' low opinion of him). And then there are just loads of other songs - this album has 18 songs, which is crazy long. I'm very familiar with the start of this album, but find I often can't make it through all six sides.

The highlights really are great - Fuck You Lucy is exactly what I want from these guys - the rapping is aggressive and interesting and they do that really well. If there was a best-of that contained just those songs I'd probably be all over that. As it is, I don't have the patience for the majority of their output a lot of the time.

Format: Triple 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 10
Cost: £10 second hand
Bought: Reckless Records, London
When: 15/09/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no