|
So Long, Astoria
Artist:
The Ataris
Format: CD
New: Currently Unavailable New
Used: Currently Unavailable $0.00
Wish
Formats and Editions
1. So Long, Astoria
2. Takeoffs and Landings
3. In This Diary
4. My Reply
5. Unopened Letter to the World
6. Saddest Song, The
7. Summer '79
8. Hero Dies in This One, The
9. All You Can Ever Learn Is What You Already Know
10. Boys of Summer, The
11. Radio #2
12. Looking Back on Today
13. Eight of Nine
14. I Won't Spend Another Night Alone - (hidden track)
15. Saddest Song, The - (acoustic version, hidden track)
More Info:
With a handful of indie releases and a few hectic years of touring under their belts, this release marks the Ataris big-label bow. And if the concept uniting it is an ode to the power of memory--a conceit attributed to Richard Hell, but one that ironically might as well have originated with the likes of Billy Joel--Kris Roe and company blitz their way through it with kinetic power and hooks to spare. But therein lies the rub: Fans will find this an album rife with positive energy, bright, well-constructed songs, and upbeat deliveries (if sometimes in service of awkward intellectual pretensions like "Unopened Letter to the World"'s parallels between Kurt Cobain and no less than Emily Dickinson); cynics may hear at as further evidence that punk and alternative rock have been co-opted in service of formulas as well-honed--and rigid--as anything the dreaded Corp Rock '80s ever yielded. Still, if play-it-to-the-back-rows, unabashed power-pop is what the Ataris were after here, they've delivered it with nigh perfection, right down to a slick, pumped up cover of Don Henley's classic-rock warhorse "The Boys of Summer."
