Nicole Atkins & The Sea preview

Nicole Atkins & The Sea
Subterranean, Chicago
Thursday, February 21, 2008

Accolades for Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black were well-earned, though the album’s old-R&B/hip-hop marriage was clearly contrived and felt occasionally forced. Nicole Atkins can’t touch Winehouse for personality or moxy, but her Neptune City (Red Ink/Columbia) is decidedly less self-conscious about its chosen idiom.

Where Winehouse sounded like she was affectedly singing to a mirror, Atkins just belts. With a production tilt that slightly modernizes Petula Clark’s “Downtown,” the debutante is free to ponder fleeting youth and unrequited love. While an a cappella mix could easily adapt to adult contemporary schmaltz, angry grrrl alt-rock, or ersatz pop, but a semi-acknowledged debt to Rufus Wainwright places her at Carnegie with Judy Garland instead (albeit with an army of Swedish-surnamed musicians filling every available pocket of air).

With the band charging behind her, “Maybe Tonight” recalls an era when producers could pack a full orchestra into a romping, three-minute nugget. “Together We’re Both Alone” arrives a bit early for a damp cloth and is the first such example of Atkins’ over-reliance on her vibrato. The slinky “The Way It Is” reveals a high slit cut on the thigh of her gown, though it’s “Love Surreal” and “Brooklyn’s On Fire” (check out the Piaf’ed “la-dee-da”s) that best punch through to the present even if Atkins could care less what year it really is.

The Parlor Mob, Ryan Lindsey, and Brendan Losch will open.

— Steve Forstneger

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly