After the prelude echoes the nostalgia of the scuzzy hooks to The Cardigan’s My Favourite Game, the industrialised electroclash of pop and rock, Attaboi, from Embers of Silence evolves into a juggernautical earworm that swaggers with as much attitude as the spikiest icons of Britpop.
The lament on contemporary capitalism is infectious from the first deliciously distorted & discordant note, from there on out, every hyper hook and slice of snarled vocal mesmerism pulls you deeper into the infectiously augmented protest track that exemplifies the multi-instrumentalist and producer’s artistic intellectualism.
It’s not every day that you encounter an artist with the ability to make cerebral art accessible and void of pretension. Clearly, the Ohio-hailing one-man machine, Samuel Austin is a rare visionary, one that would sit well on the playlists of Tears for the Dying, Atari Teenage Riot, and Machine Girl.
If the upcoming LP, A Beautiful Thing, carries an ounce of the cultivation in Attaboi, it will easily be a contender for one of the best albums of 2024.
Stream the Single Mix of Attaboi via Spotify.
Review by Amelia Vandergast