Thursday, December 29, 2011

Atmosphere's Family Album


After a slew of albums why Minneapolis rappers Atmosphere aren't household names yet is just bizarre and quite honestly criminal. Atmosphere may not be all about bling and junk like that but that's not to say they aren't good because you see they are good; in fact, they're so good they're probably the premier indie-hop group in North America.

This is a group whose intelligence and gritty realism about everyday life is what makes them as outstanding as they are. In a sense, you could think of Atmosphere as the thinking man's rap group. Unafraid to use jazz, rock, or anything else that tickles their fancy this is a band that is influenced by modern music as much as modern society and every song on The Family Sign is a reflection of that.

The Family Sign sees Atmosphere growing as songwriters and shows the group continuing to blaze a trail toward something that is far more sophisticated than most of their contemporaries. Just check out the introspective "Who I'll Never Be," and the father gone wrong in "Bad Bad Daddy for examples of how mature and knowledgeable this group is.

Atmosphere has come up with an excellent album in The Family Sign; it is intelligent, occasionally humorous, and brilliantly produced. Why more hip hop isn't like this is beyond me. After listening to this record you'll think and you might find yourself having to listen to it again just to check what they were on about, but something tells me that's exactly the way Atmosphere want it to be.

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