“This whole album is almost like my fight against loneliness,” says Nicole Atkins of her latest release, Drama. “A lot of the songs came out of the fact that my husband and I basically have a long distance relationship. We’re both on the road. He’s a tour manager. I’m an artist. We can be apart for months at a time.” Those feelings of isolation and separation, complicated by sleep problems and some career uncertainty, left Atkins feeling overwhelmed at times. “I had to write myself through a lot.”
As the material started to take shape, she felt like she was “building a life raft,” and not only for herself. “With everything going on in the world, it’s easy to forget that we’re all the same,” she says. “We’re being disconnected and pulled apart. We’re longing for connection. That’s what I want to write and sing about, and hopefully by doing that, make people feel a little less lonely.”
The life rafts on Drama are sturdy, with smart design and a buoyancy that’s a tonic for our times. The Spectorized girl group rush of “Trippin’ On Teardrops,” the pulsing Memphis soul-styled “For No One,” the James Bond-meets-Stevie Nicks noir of “Danny,” and the ABBA-worthy, anthemic “Singing In The Mirror.” As always when dissecting Atkins’ neo-classic sound, it’s fun to play with mash-up descriptions – even she offers her own colorful takes – “What if Brian Eno, Scott Walker and Lee Hazlewood were all partying?” and “It’s like a Broadway show playing on a dive bar stage.”
Her journey began in Neptune City, New Jersey, where she developed her taste and sensibility early. “There’s a poetic isolation at the Jersey shore,” she says. “All the tourists leave, and you’re stuck with this really gloomy, but beautiful place, and nothing to do. Also, there were all these summertime musicians who’d play every night on the beach. I grew up thinking that was a normal job.” Raiding the record collections of her parents and grandparents drew her to dramatic singers from Candi Staton to Roy Orbison. When she found an old acoustic guitar in the attic of her uncle’s house, her course was set. “Actually, I either wanted to be a rock star or a professional wrestler,” Atkins says, with a laugh.
It had been six years since her last, Italian Ice, and Atkins admits she had some self-doubt. Enter another Nashville pal, Patrick Sansone. The producer and Wilco multi-instrumentalist proved to be the perfect foil for Drama. “Pat knows so much about that chamber pop style of music, and that’s my North Star and home base,” Atkins says. “I write like I write – sometimes it sounds ’80s, sometimes it sounds ’60s, sometimes it sounds ’50s. And Pat always gets it. He was able to help me sprinkle that baroque sound throughout the whole record, so it all made sense together.”
And as on previous albums, she ups the ante by aiming to “write modern songs that could be part of the Great American Songbook.” But in her own way. “I’m not trying to rehash or celebrate some bygone era,” she says. “I’m just taking what I like melodically from the past, and channeling it into my songs. I like to make them deeply personal. The question I come back to is – how do I make this sound exactly like me?”
Drama sounds exactly like Nicole Atkins.