33. Battles – Atlas
Atlas manages to operate on so many levels of deeply satisfying wrongness that it’s hard to know where to start. Everything about it feels impish and mischievous – the track’s every jerk and judder is another boggle-eyed goblin popping up over your shoulder, curling its come-hither fingers. And goddam it sounds good for it. With the zeal of breathlessly excited kids who’ve broken into a sweet shop after hours and are now stuffing their faces with gay abandon, Atlas’ genius is forbidden-sounding, enticing, pulse-quickeningly delinquent. Vocals shouldn’t squeak like that; loops shouldn’t pop in and out of time like hyper-extensive limbs. They shouldn’t, but they do, and the assembled collage of mind-altering ideas lollops forward with clomping strides, brushing aside the squares and conventions like some runaway juggernaut. Atlas is the sound of some malevolent many-tentacled sea creature pushing a million squelching buttons at once. It’s the sound of sheer deviance. It’s musical gluttony. Sometimes, a track dances around you, shaking its wares in your face until you can resist no more. Sometimes it’s worth giving in to temptation.
like like like like like. thumbs up.
aka – the one that sounds like adam and the ants.