Atom & His Package
The Best of College Rock
synth punk, punk rock
Discography (studio albums only)- Atom & His Package 8/10
- A Society of People Named Elihu 8/10
- Redefining Music 4/10
- Attention! Blah Blah Blah 6/10
Atom & His Package, made up of Adam Goren and a sequencer affectionately included as his counterpart in the "band"'s name, is the weird kind of nerd rock that everybody who cares about post punk, jangle pop, alternative rock, or whatever should hear. Goren's music is made entirely on a sequencer/synthesizer that emulates sounds of other instruments to accompany his nasally voice in its lyrical odysseys through punk rock high schools, black metal, personal anecdotes, and the lack of humor in Tim Allen's comedy.
His debut LP remains a great chunk of tunes, with a surprisingly cohesive take on the music Goren would continue to produce. There is the typical pluckiness of a debut rock album combined with the insufferable smartness of a young college student. While quintessentially "rock," the rock Atom explores is the rock of David Byrne more than the extravagant rock of a David Bowie. It stands out from a lot of its peers looking for the same scene thanks to a whole load of heart and some great homage/jabs at popular acts, including a reinterpretation of sections of AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long."
Where Atom & His Package would come into its own was 1997's
A Society of People Named Elihu, an overwhelming dream for a music fan. From obscure fun references to black metal tropes and punk rock acts lost to time, to fun takes on day-to-day experiences, it's the most listenable of Atom's productions and a roller-coaster ride of fun much in the same vein as the debut, just magnified.
After the sophomore LP, Atom would go on to release a collection of EPs called
Making Love before, after four years of waiting, the 2001 third LP was released:
Redefining Music. It was inappropriately titled, as it is essentially the same music Atom always made, just completely forgettable. The lyrics attempt cleverness but start to show degeneration of Goren's wit (he begins his reactionary rants against the young and politically active in an initially benign-ish manner), and the instrumentation loses the outsider quality for a lot more straightforward punk sound. So, essentially, Adam Goren became Ted Leo and had a similarly disappointing late career.
Where
Attention! Blah Blah Blah served as a simultaneous capitulation to a new punk rock aesthetic for Goren as well as retirement from Atom & His Package to pursue an academic career and have a child, it also served as a slightly more enjoyable album than his previous attempt. The only trouble here is the complete 180 the lyrics take form earlier releases: Adam becomes an intense social critic largely standing in the "angry old person" position and shows his age in myriad ways, among them a song railing against Palestine supporters for just being young trendhoppers (to which one RYM reviewer says "Zionist punks **** off") and a song against smoking, also known as the least controversial issue of 2003.
On the whole, the career of Adam Goren and his wonderfully idiosyncratic Package is the legacy of a young college rocker turned angry college authority figure, but the first two albums are such treasures that his later work starts to pale into the background.
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