Dream pop was never any dreamier than on Nicole Atkins' 2007 debut album, Neptune City, an ambivalent Valentine to her fading Neptune, N.J., hometown. Her voice soared grandly over the ruined seascape like a reincarnated Cass Elliot's, and she neatly positioned herself to be the next great modern '60s-pop diva à la Rachael Nagy or Amy Winehouse. But Atkins tossed that style aside and went in a harder, more spacey direction on her second LP, 2011's Mondo Amore, working with the brilliant guitar soothsayer Irina Yalkowsky and wrapping her vocals inside even more sublime settings. Atkins describes her new album, Slow Phaser, as a “dark, desert disco rock album.” She's like a funky-but-chic Chrissie Hynde lying on a Giorgio Moroder bed of electronics on “Girl You Look Amazing,” but her singing retains its trademark allure on noirish passages such as “Who Killed the Moonlight.” Among her latest revelations: “In the gutter, you discover all the things you miss” and “The only dress I wear is my shadow on the wall.”

Wed., March 5, 9 p.m., 2014
(Expired: 03/05/14)

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