In April, front man Mikel Jollett and his literary-named band, The Airborne Toxic Event, released All at Once, their second album after the self-titled debut back in 2008. Much like the first album, All at Once is an intimate compilation of poetic storytelling.
The Writer in Mikel
Before forming The Airborne Toxic Event, Jollett worked as a freelance writer, and his creative writing skills are clear in his songwriting. Without ostentation, he tells a story of angst and yearning with piercing lyrics that are at times soft and sweet to “all of a sudden like a punch in the gut,” as he sings in the title track.
Face-to-Face with Mortality
While the beat of each song ranges from slow and depressing to upbeat and head-bob inducing, the lyrical tone is set from the moment Jollett's voice kicks in and maintains its angsty, the-future-is-bleak theme throughout the album. It's an appropriate theme since the band is named for a scection in Don DeLillo's 1985 novel, White Noise, in which a chemical spill releases a deadly black cloud dubbed “The Airborne Toxic Event,” over a small town and the narrator's life, forcing him to confront his mortality.
All at Once isn't all gloom and doom though. Jollett touches on love and hope too in songs like “All for a Woman,” “Half of Something Else,” and the single “Numb,” although the love seems to have ended in pain, but who wants a happy love song anyway?
Send in the Orchestra
The songs are so beautifully written and the music and lyrics are so perfectly tied together that All at Once is an impactful, relatable success. Jollett's writing talents are also hugely complemented by the gentle voice of Anna Bulbrook, who accompanies him on “All for a Woman,” “Half of Something Else,” and “The Graveyard Near the House.” Bulbrook also plays viola on “Numb,” “Woman,” “All I Ever Wanted,” and “Graveyard,” adding a much more intense sound.
Drummer Daren Taylor's pounding beats and Jollett's deep vocals work well with the orchestral instrument. The Airborne Toxic Event even incorporates the upright bass into their music and the band used both instruments in their debut album and has played live alongside the Louisville Orchestra and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, performing their own songs as orchestral arrangements.
The most powerful and iPod-worthy songs on All at Once are the singles, “Numb” and “Changing,” and the instrumentally strong “All I Ever Wanted.” While “Numb” has traces of The Smiths and U2 with Bono-like 'ooohs,' it is also undefiably The Airborne Toxic Event. Like “Half of Something Else,” which starts off an awful lot like “Sometime Around Midnight,” “Numb” revisits the feel of the first album.
Like The Airborne Toxic Event, All at Once is a raw and intimate gift. It is the next step from a band that is going to be a huge influence in musical art.
Jennifer Berube - I am a freelance writer based in Victoria, B.C. I graduated from the Humber College Journalism program and have worked as a reporter for a ...
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