Album Review: Daniel Wylie's Cosmic Rough Riders - "Atoms And Energy"

 

As I mentioned when I did their Sounds From The Junkshop entry a few days ago, the Cosmic Rough Riders were one of the more underrated indie bands of the millennium years and while researching said article, it came to my attention that frontman Daniel Wylie (who fronted the band on their pre-breakthrough albums and their Poptones debut Enjoy The Melodic Sunshine) has put his own line-up together in recent years and that an album was now out.

As you'd maybe expect, Atoms And Energy is a fairly sedate effort mainly led by Wylie's acoustic guitar although it doesn't stop the odd curveball sneaking in - opener The Bruises And The Blood starts off as a dark nocturnal lament about domestic violence before suddenly going all Beatles/Beach Boys psychedelic midway through. It's second song, the wistful Heaven's Waiting Room, which mourns the passing of time over a gentle melody, that kind of sums this album up better though as does the Lennonesque God Is Nowhere.

Unfortunately, it's this lack of pace that's the main minus point with this album - it's a perfectly nice and relaxing Sunday afternoon listen (which helpfully was when I listened to it myself!) but you do sometimes wish that Wylie would up the tempo slightly just to vary things up a bit. I mean, yeah, I know Cosmic Rough Riders were never the most punky of bands but at least songs like Melanie and The Pain Inside had a bit of a kick behind the chorus whereas here it's mostly sleepy acousticisms with only the spiteful Ruth The Truth really straying from the format too much.

Overall, Atoms And Energy is a perfectly pleasant album for quiet times listening but I just kind of wish a couple of the tracks varied from the gentle Byrdsian formula a little bit more than they do. Still, for hungover mornings when anything too noisy sounds like the clanking of Hades, it's pretty much ideal.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑🌑 (7/10)

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