The rock quartet Atomic Tom, consisting of singer
Luke White, guitarist Eric Espiritu, bassist Phil Galitzine, and drummer Tobias Smith, harks back to a specific time and style in pop music history. With
White's gruff voice and the band's dense pop/rock arrangements, they suggest the sound of a British (or Australian) rock group of the mid-'80s. Think
Duran Duran,
the Human League,
INXS, or
Simple Minds. Actually,
White often recalls another, slightly more individual band of the time,
the Cure, with phrasing similar to Robert Smith's, even if he is a less distinctive singer. Atomic Tom doesn't really transcend its antecedents because there isn't much more to their music than the style that will be familiar to music fans of the era of John Hughes' high school movies, big hair, and MTV (when it played music videos all the time). The lyrics are pedestrian, and the music, while efficiently performed, never breaks out of its obvious mold. Not surprisingly, Atomic Tom was quickly called upon to cover
the Human League's "Don't You Want Me" for the ‘80s period movie
Take Me Home Tonight. ~ William Ruhlmann