“Italian Ice”: Breezy Boardwalk Soul From Nicole Atkins

Nicole Atkins / photo by Barbara FG / courtesy of 7S MGMT

Italian Ice continues Nicole Atkins‘ evolution as a performer, songwriter and producer. The album’s title was inspired from a feel-good childhood memory that Jersey Shore native Atkins has of going to the boardwalk with her parents to get Italian ice. Inspired by ’80s new wave (Blondie, The Pretenders, et al), Philly funk, and oldies, the album is a musically diverse and inventive summer soundtrack of sorts, a balance of joy and heartbreak Atkins calls “boardwalk soul.”

On The Porch / photo by Joey Martinez / courtesy of 7S MGMT

The album opens with the musically bright but lyrically dark “AM Gold,” followed by the psychedelic dream that is “Mind Eraser,” the disco-tinged “Domino,” and “Forever,” a hopeful, soft-rocking relationship song with lines such as “I’m losing sleep, I’m not tired / Remind me it’s a slow ride.”

“Captain,” featuring Spoon’s Britt Daniel, is a gorgeous love ballad, a throwback to her earliest albums, while “Never Going Home Again” proves how comfortable she is in a countrified vein.

“St. Dymphna” proves that Atkins is not afraid to tackle uncomfortable subjects such as mental illness (“I’d rather die than go out of my mind”), while the stripped-down production of “Far From Home” really lets her evocative voice shine.

Brushing Up / photo by Rett Rogers / courtesy of 7S MGMT

The last three tracks comprise something of a love/relationship trilogy, beginning with the rueful surrender of “A Road to Nowhere” (a failed 1966 single by Carole King, thematically similar to her 1971 smash “It’s Too Late”). It’s followed by “These Old Roses,” which finds the singer “praying you’ll return someday,” and the closing track, “In the Splinters,” in which she’s happily on the rebound (“You tried your best to knock me down / but someone came along and built me up again”).

Although Italian Ice was recorded at Alabama’s Muscle Shoals Sound Studio with such legendary sideman as organist Spooner Oldham and bassist David Hood, as well as Grammy Award-winner MacKenzie Smith on drums, there’s also a strong connection to Atkins former home base of Brooklyn, namely percussionist Jim Sclavunos and pianist David “Moose” Sherman (both of Nick Cave & the Seeds) and guitarist Binky Griptite (Antibalas, The Dap Kings). Atkins co-produced the album with Ben Tanner of Alabama Shakes.