The Raveonettes

2016 Atomized

Trump this: recorded one song per month, the Danes’ album inspired by 2016.

Long before celebrity culls or post-truth populism, The Raveonettes decided to document 2016 by recording a new song each month and collating them together. As years go, they picked a doozy. Consciously free of references to Bowie or Brexit, political commentary or ‘dear diary’ detail, Atomized’s dark yet dreamy pop still eerily echoes 2016’s peaks and troughs. Hence year opener This World Is Empty (Without You) shimmers with uplifting, yet ultimately doomed goth disco; the fried electro of August’s A Good Fight veers between punkish rebellion and nostalgic waltz, while November’s Fast Food decays in a crumbling wave of glacial guitar static. Neither the sound nor story of 2016, instead, this compelling song collection offers an abstract journey through the themes, influences and emotions of a most eventful year.