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Monday, March 21, 2011

CD of the Week: Breakups Galore on Atkins Amore

Nicole Atkins split from her boyfriend, her label and her backing band.  You might expect her new album could be a one-sided, venomous revenge album.

Instead, with her new band, The Black Sea, Atkins sketches out relationship endings from multiple points of blame, including herself.  Mondo Amore is WTMD's new CD of the Week. All these changes for Nicole really pay off.

Displaying those dramatic pipes, Atkins gets raw and rocking  with the reverb-soaked and string-heavy "Vultures." A  Zeppelin-like shuffle compliments Atkins bluesy delivery on "You Come to Me," a Delta-blues harp riff spices up "My Baby Don't Lie" and Jim James adds a male counterpart to ballad, "War is Hell."  That last one might have a political tale to tell--give it a listen and decide.


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