Posted on 05/12/2008
When Life Gives You Lemons, Paint that Shit Gold begins, Slug [Sean Daley] one half of the Twin Cities duo, synthesizes the tone of the whole album in the first track, ”Like the Rest of us.” Rhyming over a creepy piano streamlined beat, Daley speaks on the infinite amount of forced materialism and media influenced garbage we consume on a daily basis, and whether we do it consciously or sub-consciously, realizing at the end of the day that none of it represents him. “It’s porno flicks, it’s the east coast, no it’s the west coast, it’s public schools, it’s asbestos it’s mentholated, it’s sleep, life and death, it’s speed, coke and meth.” This leads Slug and Ant [Anthony Davis] to take the first five to six records on this album and vent in a variety of ways about how much love, music, good, and evil can take us to the brink of the inevitable if there is no sense of balance.

The album has decent production, but it doesn’t accentuate or downgrade the lyricism. There’s no sound or beat that assists Slug or Ant in telling their story.  In their quest for sanity and balance there isn't much help from different baseline, kicks or instrumentation.  This leaves it up to the content and the lyrics to carry the album; sometimes they were successful, and others time they weren't. The theme of the album is singular and straightforward, with no real differentiation or diversity.  This leaves the listener going on this ride without any peaks or valleys. The only track that really displays the range or risk-taking thought of Atmosphere's experimentation is the last track, which happens to be the first release, “Shoulda Known.” The second half of the album turns towards the positive, and even delivers some solutions to maintain sanity in today’s previously mentioned evils.

Overall, When Life Gives You Lemons, Paint that Shit Gold is a true art experience and something that could only be produced and distributed via the independent route. That is not a shot at indie labels or Atmosphere, but with the state of the current artist-to -label relationship, true artistic expression is hard to come by, which is something that was accomplished on this effort. In reality we all have our own atmosphere, it’s up to us to decide what’s fallacy and what’s reality.

- Dale Coachman