Rockets - Atomic (1982)

01. Atomic - 4:03
02. Some Other Place, Some Other Time - 4:46
03. Star Vision (Alain Maratrat) - 5:47
04. Run To The Stars - 4:36
05. Future Game - 4:49
06. Light Speed Junky (Fabrice Quagliotti, Gérard L'Her) - 3:29
07. The Martian Way (Gérard L'Her) - 5:17
08. Radio Station (Alain Maratrat, Claude Lemoine, Gérard L'Her) - 5:23

- Christian Le Bartz - vocals
- "Little" Gérard L'Her - bass, vocals
- Alain Maratrat - guitars, keyboards, vocals
- Fabrice Quagliotti - keyboards
- Alain Groetzinger - drums, percussion

The best album of a criminally underrated band. Rockets' output does not often seem to be taken seriously. Maybe it's because of the silver paint on their heads?

Anyway, Atomic is the last album before they incorporated Sal Solo, and believe me, they would never again improve over this. The 'space rock' label is not very accurate, as by that time they had given up the glam influences of the early albums and settled for cosmic-tinged synthpop. Actually, you can easily play this next to the 80's Human League or A Flock of Seagulls and not notice any significant quality difference! Atomic contains some catchy as hell upbeat songs that deserved to become hits but didn't. These include above all the title tune and "Future Game". On the other hand, "Some Other Place, Some Other Time" and "The Martian Way" are beautiful and moody, with the kind of melancholy that is usually associated with the New Romantics. In fact there is not a single weak song here. The vocals are average and the lyrics very naive, but it doesn't diminish the album's charm. Oh, and their trademark vocoder parts are here in abundance.

A largely forgotten gem (as is the band - outside of Italy, Russia and maybe France), worth discovering. I'm glad I did. And somebody please reissue this one. --- alexxx_79, rateyourmusic.com

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