Love Is In The Missile

A modern rock band built around Sergio Sanchez — the only member of the quintet minus a catch nickname apart from bassist Arnold Nesz — Atom Smash pretties up the sound of the ‘90s on their debut Love Is in the Missile. And this isn’t the gnarled grunge of the ‘90s, either — it’s the smoothed-out, beefed-up post-grunge that followed, anything that happened between Bush and Third Eye Blind. Atom Smash never gets as nimble as Stephan Jenkins’ crew (nor do they get as pretentious) but they surely are on the commercial side of things, singing about rocked worlds and lost loves. Paramore producer David Bendeth keeps the group from wallowing in nostalgia but the intent is to play to tweens and their moms. – Stephen Thomas Erlewine