Nicole Atkins - Mondo Amore

“When you listen to it, it feels like a movie,” Nicole Atkins says of Mondo Amore (January 25, Razor + Tie), the long awaited follow up her critically praised 2007 major label debut Neptune City, an album named after her hometown of Neptune, NJ. But despite strong reviews, Atkins found her own genre hopping music -- a mix of twangy retro rock, surreal, inkblack balladry and an increasingly rough and tumble edge -- out of sorts with label suits who were looking for an easily pigeonholed, mass appeal "indie"-styled hit. Then events evolved from bad to worse on the personal front. “Things got kinda weird and dark,” Atkins says. “Writing these songs was my way of trying to work out what was happening. I was breaking up with my boyfriend, my band, and my label, all at the same time.”

The "weird and dark" is reflected in Mondo Amore's more adventurous musical terrain. Teamed with producer Pete Palazzolo (A.C. Newman) and a fresh set of local Brooklyn musician/friends, Atkins explored a more direct, tumultuous approach. "...I wanted to deconstruct the sound a little bit," she observes. "With everything that was going on, and because of the subject matter, I knew I needed something more aggressive." The darkly menacing opener "Vultures" lays the groundwork for the album's exhilarating buckshot approach, Atkin's powerhouse vocals riding roughshod over a bluesy, atmospheric rock bed, an anthem of widescreen proportions and depth. “This is the record I’ve been wanting to make since I was 12,” says Atkins. “It has so many layers, it’s able to do whatever it wants without defining itself as one thing.”

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Nicole Atkins - "Vultures" (from the album Mondo Amore) (free download here)