Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb is the third studio album by American rock band Tripping Daisy, released on July 7, 1998, through Island Records. It was the band's first album to be recorded with guitarist Phil Karnats and drummer Benjamin Curtis, and was the band's last album to be released during guitarist Wes Berggren's lifetime. Produced by Eric Drew Feldman, the album is a stylistic departure from the band's previous work, showcasing a more artistic sound that is underpinned by pop sensibilities. The album also features a significant amount of experimentation with its guitars, vocals and instrumentation.
A few months prior to the release of Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb, Island Records' parent company was involved in a major corporate merger, which negatively affected the album's promotional campaign. The album failed to meet sales expectations; neither it nor its singles charted, resulting in Island Records ending its contract with Tripping Daisy two months after its release. Despite this, critics gave Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb mostly positive reviews, praising its improved musicianship and songwriting. The album is now regarded as the band's best work, and has been viewed as a precursor to Tim DeLaughter's next project The Polyphonic Spree.
Background
In June 1995, Tripping Daisy issued their second album I Am an Elastic Firecracker, which includes the hit single "I Got a Girl". The album was a moderate commercial success, reaching number 95 on the US Billboard 200 chart, and also appeared on several charts worldwide. The band, however, faced numerous difficulties during this period; after a tour of the United States, drummer Bryan Wakeland left the band in February 1996 due to creative differences. He was replaced by Mitch Marine, who performed with the band during a poorly received supporting tour with Def Leppard throughout 1996. In time, Marine proved to be an "even worse [musical] partnership" than Wakeland. Sales of I Am an Elastic Firecracker were not as high as the band and Island Records hoped; it had sold 300,000 copies by 1998.
Tripping Daisy, who were exhausted from touring for six-and-a-half years, went on an extended hiatus for most of 1997 and nearly split up. The band's frontman, Tim DeLaughter, had also become increasingly disillusioned with the music industry, and felt that Island Records were trying to change the band's focus away from their music and towards album and singles sales. While working on music, DeLaughter met guitarist and trumpeter Phil Karnats; the two connected musically and began working on a side project called The Platinum Experience, with DeLaughter on drums and Karnats on guitar.
Recording and production
Prior to the recording of Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb, Tripping Daisy sent a demo tape of their new material to producer Eric Drew Feldman. Tim DeLaughter became interested in working with Feldman after hearing his work producing Deus's album In a Bar, Under the Sea (1996): according to DeLaughter, "Sounds I heard on the Deus record were part of a world we wanted to be able to play in". Although they did not expect Feldman to respond, he agreed to produce the band's next album. The band commenced recording at Dreamland with Feldman and engineer Andy Baker, who also worked on I Am an Elastic Firecracker, on October 10, 1997. Tripping Daisy collectively wrote and recorded around 20 songs at Dreamland for Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb, five of which were written at the studio. Feldman insisted recordings that contained mistakes and missed notes were to be left intact, often responding to the band's requests to re-record takes with "No way. That’s awesome." The Austin Chronicle labeled the album "space pop", whilst AllMusic described it as "[balancing] punk-pop with art-rock". The album's sound was compared to the works of bands such as Jane's Addiction, He also considered Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb to be "the most honest record coming out in the last few years", "Sonic Bloom" is a psychedelic pop ballad about "the joy and wide-eyed amazement of finding, falling and feeling love". Some of the album's tracks exhibit a punk rock influence;
Tim DeLaughter's lyrics were described as dense and often cryptic; Pitchfork described the lyrics as "[coming] straight off of Robert Pollard's Guided By Voices lyricpad". Feldman permitted DeLaughter to apply extensive overdubbing and harmonization to his and his bandmates' vocals in an attempt to create more melody; he had attempted to do this on Tripping Daisy's previous albums but the producers he worked with thought it was annoying. The album's vocal harmonies were compared to those of The Beach Boys. Speaking to the Dallas Observer shortly before the album's release, Sigerson predicted the album would sell at least 500,000 copies in the United States, and possibly one million copies by the end of 1998 to become Platinum-certified. As part of the album's promotion in the UK, Island organized a giveaway of a limited-edition 7" single of "Waited a Light Year" that featured the song on the A-side and an etching of the album's artwork on the reverse through Kerrang! magazine between August 1 and August 6, 1998. Readers could write to a mailing address to receive the single, which was limited to 1,000 copies. The single was not warmly received by radio stations. No music videos were made for either of the album's singles, although a music video for "Sonic Bloom" was supposed to be filmed in November 1998. Neither the album or its singles charted and sales were poor. DeLaughter told the Houston Chronicle in 2017: "We felt like we were doing something special. But it just disappeared. It was dead on arrival."
Around a month before the album's release, Island's parent company PolyGram was purchased by the beverage giant Seagram for US$10.6 billion. To finance the acquisition and cut costs, Seagram decided to merge PolyGram into Universal Music Group, resulting in the loss of 3,000 PolyGram jobs. a Chicago Tribune review of one of the band's shows on September 23, 1998, noted only 200 people had attended the band's show at Metro Chicago, which had a maximum capacity of 1,400. The GW Hatchet reviewed a show at Black Cat in Washington, D.C., and reported an audience of only forty people. After the tour's conclusion, the band returned to the studio to record demos for a new album.
Critical reception
Upon its release, Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb received mostly positive reviews from critics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic hailed the album as "a big stylistic breakthrough [for Tripping Daisy]" and praised Feldman's contributions. David Weiss of Alternative Press lauded the album's musicianship and songwriting, stating that "It would be tough to ask for more from a lo-fi pop album than what Tripping Daisy have delivered on Jesus." Johnathan Perry of The Boston Phoenix noted Karnats' and Curtis' "seamless" contributions to the band's "trippy" sound,
However, some critics found the album inconsistent in its quality and approach. Jenny Eliscu of CMJ New Music Monthly said Tripping Daisy's experimentation on the album is akin to "a kid with its first chemistry kit", producing songs of varying quality; "sometimes it creates a fascinating new concoction; other times the different parts just neutralize each other and what's left is an inchoate mess". The album has since become a critical and fan favorite, and is generally regarded as Tripping Daisy's best work. In November 2003, CMJ New Music Report awarded the album a "Silver Salute", calling it a "classic College Radio album". The Dallas Observer called Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb "the greatest record of [Tripping Daisy]'s career" in July 2011, and later ranked "Sonic Bloom" at number 100 on their "100 Best Texas Songs" list in August 2012, praising the track as "more heartfelt than anything [the band had] done before". In a 2024 interview with D Magazine, DeLaughter called Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb his favourite album from Tripping Daisy's discography, citing its enjoyable recording experience and the band's songwriting developments.
Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb has been retrospectively viewed as a precursor to Tim DeLaughter's subsequent endeavors with the choral rock band The Polyphonic Spree, which he formed following Tripping Daisy's disbandment in 1999. CMJ Doug Levy said that throughout Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb, "you can actually hear the Polyphonic Spree being born in DeLaughter's head", In November 2020, the album was reissued on double vinyl for the first time through the band's own record label Good Records, which was formed shortly after Island ended its contract with the band. Tripping Daisy had planned to issue the album on vinyl around the time of its release but this was indefinitely delayed due to the UMG-PolyGram merger.
Track listing
All lyrics are written Tim DeLaughter; all music is composed by Tripping Daisy, except where noted.
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| rowspan="2" |Various
| rowspan="2" |Good Records
|2xLP
|November 27, 2020
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