Red Int / Red Ink
2007
Neptune City
About This Album
Throughout Neptune City, Nicole Atkins takes inspiration from some of rock's most famous women -- Stevie Nicks, Chrissie Hynde and Siouxsie Sioux to name the most prominent. Though only time will tell if she will join the ranks of her inspirations, Atkins shows on this album that she has both the capability and potential. By either happy accident or cunning design, the lush arrangements on Neptune City, which call to mind Rufus Wainwright's Poses or Duke Special's Songs from the Deep Forest, showcase the depth, range, and versatility of Atkins' voice, not to mention her songwriting prowess. After years of breathy, lightweight female vocalists, it's a welcome reminder that a woman's voice (in both the physical and literary sense) can have strength and power without losing its appeal.

Even on numbers that employ more traditional pop sensibilities, Atkins is anything but vacuous or banal, and while the arrangements are certainly theatrical, they're not overbearingly so. This is evident from the beginning as the album's opener, "Maybe Tonight," starts off with a shimmering piano arpeggio and works into a song that sounds like a Brill Building or '60s girl group holdover for all the right reasons.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7)

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