So Long, Astoria
Currently Unavailable
About This Release
With a handful of indie releases and a few hectic years of touring under their belts, this release marks the Ataris big-label bow. And if the concept uniting it is an ode to the power of memory--a conceit attributed to Richard Hell, but one that ironically might as well have originated with the likes of Billy Joel--Kris Roe and company blitz their way through it with kinetic power and hooks to spare. But therein lies the rub: Fans will find this an album rife with positive energy, bright, well-constructed songs, and upbeat deliveries (if sometimes in service of awkward intellectual pretensions like "Unopened Letter to the World"'s parallels between Kurt Cobain and no less than Emily Dickinson); cynics may hear at as further evidence that punk and alternative rock have been co-opted in service of formulas as well-honed--and rigid--as anything the dreaded Corp Rock '80s ever yielded. Still, if play-it-to-the-back-rows, unabashed power-pop is what the Ataris were after here, they've delivered it with nigh perfection, right down to a slick, pumped up cover of Don Henley's classic-rock warhorse "The Boys of Summer."
Tracklist
1
So Long, Astoria
2
Takeoffs and Landings
3
In This Diary
4
My Reply
5
Unopened Letter to the World
6
Saddest Song, The
7
Summer '79
8
Hero Dies in This One, The
9
All You Can Ever Learn Is What You Already Know
10
Boys of Summer, The
11
Radio #2
12
Looking Back on Today
13
Eight of Nine
14
I Won't Spend Another Night Alone - (hidden track)
15
Saddest Song, The - (acoustic version, hidden track)