Atlas Genius - End Of The Tunnel [White Vinyl]

“And we fought with the system/And it went to our heads/We tried to be Romans/Now we’re beggars instead” “Romans” For seasoned Australian alternative stalwarts Atlas Genius, their third album – and first in nine years – End of the Tunnel on the Orchard comes after a trying time that included leaving Warner Records and then their adopted base of Los Angeles for home just before the pandemic shut down the world. Whether that’s a light or an oncoming train in their path, the band’s lead vocalist/guitarist/writer and founding member Keith Jeffery is looking ahead, not over his shoulder, on 11 songs which reflect that turmoil and growth, both personal and universal, over the past several years. “We’re happy enough just to get this album out, above everything else,” admits Keith, with the band in “musical purgatory” due to another aborted label deal. “We have no expectations this time. ”The previously released “Elegant Strangers” is a melodic ode to the drug-fueled L.A. faux schmooze culture, “dressed for the morning sun/Mirrors and razors,” already charting at Sirius XM’s Alt Nation. 

The opening disco-inflected track, “Falling So Hard,” offers a longing song for a lover “oceans apart.” It’s a theme explored as well on “Nobody Loves Like You,” with Keith’s falsetto and funky guitar solo underlining a tale of missing someone “half the world away,” a dance-rock track that combines the club floor and the furthest reaches of the arena. The epic orchestral intro to the geo-political tract “Don’t Let Love be a Stranger,” “Can’t Be Alone Tonight” and “On a Wave,” inspired by Keith’s passion for surfing, sport an anthemic melodic drive with whisper-to-a-scream dynamics. “It’s not really about the water, though I used to love to surf,” says Keith about “On a Wave,” “It’s like riding that emotional roller coaster, trying to maintain your balance despite all of life’s ups and downs.”

“Romans” examines a dysfunctional relationship Jeffery experienced while in L.A. “We were seemingly under control, like Romans, but we were really just bullshitting and using one another,” explains Keith, a Pisces and admitted “hopeless” romantic. “Animals” and “Do Me This Way” offer thumping, funky odes to unbridled, passionate lust.“ ’Animals’ is just about the chemistry between people,” observed Keith. “The coy games that couples play, the dance of courtship which results in marriage and kids or is simply a one-nightstand. ‘Do Me This Way’ is about indulging in all the wrong shit in L.A., when you should be focusing on what you need to be doing.” 

“All for nothing, all for show/If all else fails, at least we rode,” “On a Wave” Atlas Genius started out in Victor Harbor, a tiny town an hour south of Adelaide on the coast of southern Australia in 2011 with Keith and his brothers Michael on drums and Steve on bass and keys along with keyboardist Darren Sell, working out of a home studio they built with funds from playing at local bars. Signed worldwide to Warner Records, Atlas Genius released a three-song EP and two full-length albums. The debut, When It Was Now, dropped in 2013, producing the Sirius XM Alt Nation hit, “Trojans,” the album peaking at #3 on the Billboard Alternative chart (where it remained for over 52 straight weeks), and #34 on the Billboard 200, with a second single, “If So,” hitting #8 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart. Inanimate Objects came out two years later, with the first single, “Molecules,” going Top 10 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart, where it spent 22 weeks before the band was unceremoniously dropped. 

“We have to remind people that we’re still here,” acknowledges Keith. “I feel very positive about things now. You have to go through a really shit period to appreciate what you’ve got. We’re ready to put the past behind us, to emerge from the ‘End of the Tunnel’ into the sunlight. We’re excited to start playing these new songs for people. It’s about time. “This is by far our strongest album from front to back, mainly because we had the time to get it right. These 11 songs are the best from the more than hundred I’ve written over that time. I’m just very happy with how it turned out.”