Atmosphere, Slug & AntBest Atmosphere, Slug & Ant Albums Ranked

To All My Friends, Blood Makes the Blade Holy: The Atmosphere EPs

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7.3

“Returning to the EP format that served them so well on Lucy Ford all those years ago, the emo-rap O.G.s offer their best release in some time.”

When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold (Instrumental Version)

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7.0

“The Minneapolis duo's surprise hit album finds them less narcissistically emo than on previous efforts; rather than himself, Slug explores a procession of rust-belt standbys-- late-shift waitress, warehouse worker, deadbeat dad, homeless man, Tom Waits-- straight out of Studs Terkel.”

Southsiders (Instrumental Version)

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6.3

“About 10 years ago, already well into a flourishing career, the bluster and self-evisceration of the early records Slug made with producer Ant as Atmosphere suddenly bored him. So he started penning compassionate character sketches while Ant warmed and loosened up their sound with live instruments. Southsiders extends the "quietly durable" phase of the Minneapolis duo's lifespan.”

You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having

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5.9

“Emo hip-hop group displays a sense of hard-earned competency.”

The Family Sign

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5.8

“Slug returns, stripping some of the more larger-than-life traits of misspent youth away from his approach and tilting more towards plainspoken sincerity.”

God Loves Ugly

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5.7

“Sometime in the first half of this decade it became a minor sport in rap nerd circles to get pissed off at Atmosphere's Slug, a sport that Slug more or less acted like the commissioner of. The combination of self-loathing, female troubles, and stress-fueled antagonism in his lyrics could be off-putting to heads whether they liked Mos Def or UGK, and for a while Sean Daley seemed to revel in it, li”