To talk about HELEN LOVE these days is to talk about inexhaustible energy, about infinite youth, about the most iconoclastic cheekiness we can imagine. After five albums (three compilations and two official albums) and close to twenty singles, we get “Atomic”, the advance single from what is going to be their upcoming album on Elefant Records, “Day-Glo Dreams”. The album will be marked by the move toward eighties-styled synth-pop, accentuating the group’s most techno-pop facet, though without leaving behind that explosive punk spirit that bursts into powerful little pills.
The title-track of this digital single, “Atomic”, is proof of what we were saying before: it has an unforgettable chorus, marked by bubbling synthesizer lines in a story of teenage love that will make fans of THE HUMAN LEAGUE and SILICON TEENS swoon. The remaining two songs on the digital single are both previously unreleased tracks. The first song, “A Giant Kiss”, goes in exactly the opposite direction, following along the lines of the girl-groups from the sixties, somewhere between THE SUPREMES and THE SHANGRI-LA’s. It’s irresistible and super catchy, with those “oh oh ohs” that were born to be hummed. It’s a rare bird in the group’s discography and it shows their versatility and that, whatever style they choose to work with, they are always spot on with the melodies, and manage to keep their immediacy intact. “Judy Don’t Dance” uses soul and dance music to prove to us once again what we were just saying. Light-footed strings, danceable rhythms, and distorted guitars compose the cocktail of elements that come together in the most unpredictable way to make another perfect hit.
So now the only thing left to do is wait for the imminent arrival of “Day-Glo Dreams”. We are impatient.
Video-clip of "Atomic" on sale on iTunes
