While Nicole Atkins has long been slotted alongside other indie songstresses, she really throws back to the crooners of the sixties & seventies, the Brill Building era. The trick for her is balancing that older style with modernity, not going overboard and into maudlin. She does somewhat tip too far into the past at times on Goodnight Rhonda Lee, but also has some pieces that hit it out of the park.
First and foremost is the title track (for backstory, “Rhonda Lee” is what her family referred to her drunken persona: “We’re having company over for dinner tonight. Make sure ‘Rhonda Lee’ doesn’t show up…”), Atkins’ wry charm perfectly matching a sixties Brill croon. “Listen Up”, the piece before it, gets very strong seventies soul, including wa-wa. In general, the record is best when it goes big – see the horns on “Brokedown Luck”.
Nicole Atkins was a would-have-been ‘it girl’ a decade or so ago, before major label and big name producer issues caused problems like they always do. Instead, she has carved a place for herself that is very much her own. Well, hers and Rhonda Lee’s…
