Two years after their first single “Trojans” was released, Atlas Genius has finally come out with their first full length album When It Was Now. The Australian band’s first album has an 80’s pop feel to it but still fits in with the genre that is becoming more and more popular, indie. However, the people that were drawn in by their first single “Trojans” may end up leaving disappointed after listening to the rest of the album.
After their EP Through the Glass which like “Trojans” was very successful, Atlas Genius’s new album is not anything spectacular. Not to say that it is a flop necessarily, but it did not meet the high expectations. When It Was Now has plenty of good songs and strong instumental, but it hasn’t reached the success of their previous album. Some songs were even great on their own but the downfall of that is they made the other songs on the album seem less appealing.
The use of synths appears slightly at the beginning of the album but surprisingly most of the songs sound more acoustic. The opener “Electric” is one of the best songs on the album after that the rest of the songs don’t live up to the introduction. “Trojans” and “If So” are obvious choices for the radio because of the pop sound that is not as strong in any of the other tracks. Whereas, “All These Girls” and “On a Day” are the two songs on the album that one may actually be able to dance to. One of the huge problems with these songs especially, “Symptoms” is that the lyrics are very simple. Despite the simple lyrics lead singer Keith Jeffrey shows his best vocals on this track. Even though there was big talk about the original single “Trojans” over all When It Was Now makes Atlas Genius seem average.
