Gregory Attonito – Natural Disaster
There’s a fine line between ‘chill’ and ‘boring.’ An artist can only try so hard to make the listener feel peaceful before they want to skip to the next track; after all, isn’t music supposed to trigger some kind of emotion? Some artists use a more relaxed vibe to create a lush, gorgeous soundscape (Sleeping at Last comes to mind), others just want to give the listener a good soundtrack to a quiet summer night (a la Jack Johnson). Gregory Attonito, the frontman for the punk band The Bouncing Souls, leans a little closer to the latter camp with his relaxed solo debut, Natural Disaster.
Put simply, musical complexity is not the album’s strength. Virtuoso performances are nowhere to be found, and Attonito’s voice never sounds anything less than gentle. All of the six songs available are repetitive and simplistic. Yet there’s still a lot to enjoy. While Natural Disaster may be a bit sleepy, there are a few catchy moments and one gorgeous track, leaving the album close to the middle of the “chill vs. boring” spectrum.
“How Many Songs” sets the tone for the album well; simple acoustic plucking accompanies Attonito’s relaxed crooning, with some studio trickery adding extra voices for effect. The sparse synthesizer gives the song a spacey effect, and the added female backing vocals give it a whimsy air, making it a solid opener.
The jazzy “Volcano” uses a trumpet and piano quite tastefully (particularly the trumpet solo in the bridge), giving an otherwise lethargic song a boost of energy. The album’s unquestioned highlight, though, comes at the very end in “Teardrops.” The album’s most lively acoustic strumming, combined with melancholy, sparse piano parts, atmospheric violins and trumpet, would make this an album highlight alone; the beautiful duet between Attonito and an anonymous female vocalist put it over the top.
It’s a pity the rest of the album doesn’t come close to that standard. “Sexiest Girl” plods along without anything to make it particularly memorable, and the chorus of “The sexiest girl in the world is you, it’s true/ the sexist girl in the world, it’s true, it’s you” is almost embarrassingly simplistic. “Cincinnati Dream” is the slowest song on an album full of slow songs, and it’s in serious need of a shot of energy to make it engaging.
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