Nicole Atkins

Neptune City (Columbia)

By Anne C. Johnson
Published: November 7th, 2007 | 6:21am

The hype machine has been hip to Nicole Atkins ever since Rolling Stone pegged her as an artist to watch. USA Today named one of her songs ("The Way It Is") as a "Top Pick of the Week." Then, an American Express commercial featuring her music premiered during a PGA broadcast, causing the Google switchboards to light up. (Who knew golfers were music nerds?)

It is a little difficult to neatly categorize New Jersey native Nicole Atkins. Her first full-length album, Neptune City, is one part country, one part girl group, with a smidgen of retro-rockabilly thrown in for good measure. She has been compared to the likes of Patsy Cline, Roy Orbison, and Loretta Lynn but should also include Sheryl Crow, and especially k.d. lang, whose torchy pop model Atkins' most closely follows. The production by Tore Johansson (Saint Etienne, New Order, Cardigans), like Atkins' voice, is huge and transcends some of Neptune City's weaker tracks.

The album's show stopper, "The Way It Is," is a perfectly heart-wrenching breakup song. Fortunately, for those not into the whole "boohoo love sucks" thing, Atkins ends on a cheerful note with the Phil Spector–esque wall of sound extravaganza, "Party's Over." Turns out tons of golf fans are not wrong in their musical tastes, because Neptune City is inexplicably charming and, wow, what a voice (insert golf clap here).