From All Angles: Phoenix’s ‘Bankrupt!’
The beloved French band just dropped their first album since 2009's breakout Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Let's see what the critics say...
After a few years of relative silence, Parisian quartet Phoenix have finally unleashed their new album, Bankrupt! Described as a departure from the catchy pop hooks of previous releases, Bankrupt! reportedly heads in a more experimental direction and has garnered praise for its nuanced production and delicate subtleties. The album’s out in Australia today, a whole week ahead of its US debut (yeah, they may get Game of Thrones quicker, but we get Phoenix… suck it!), so let’s take a quick look at what’s been said about it so far. Thanks critics!
_
This is the album cover. Mmm, peaches.
_
The author: Chris Payne
The publication: Billboard
Crux of article: Payne begins by taking us on a quick walk down Phoenix memory lane, reminding us just how “slow and methodical” the band’s path to success has been. Like most things truly good and pure, the band formed in the decade responsible for light-up sneakers and mood rings (the ‘90s, baby), but it wasn’t until a little thing called Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix dropped in 2009 that the English speaking world finally shut up and, for a beautiful 31-week period (when the band’s lead single ‘1901’ hit #1 on the charts), listened to what those Frenchies had to say. Echoing that whole “slow and methodical” vibe, Payne then systematically runs through a track-by-track review of Bankrupt!.
Noting that the band are “perfectly content to work within the Wolfgang Amadeus template…” (you know, 10 tracks, two halves, and a shape-shifting seven-minute interlude), Bankrupt! is heavy with pop appeal, synthesizer sounds, and has a general “production gloss that permeates the album.” ‘The Real Thing’ is “a meticulously-produced pop track that’s overflowing with little nuances”, while ‘Chloroform’ — “a side-b highlight [with] warm, fluorescent keyboards and a balmy tropical feel” — is evocative of a “summer festival at sundown.” Sure, lead single ‘Entertainment’ “lacks a strong enough hook to top the pure bliss of ‘1901’”, but overall, Payne’s pretty impressed with Phoenix’s amusing song titles.
$2-per-word sentence: “Five albums into their career, we’re starting to catch onto the fancy tricks Phoenix like to pull.”
Related French cliché: “Je ne suis pas né hier.” (“I wasn’t born yesterday.”)
_
The author: Forrest Wickman
The publication: Slate
Crux of article: Short and sweet, Wickman notes that the band’s “sound has grown even bigger” on this album and takes “their variation on the so-called ‘Oriental riff'” as evidence of a plot for world domination. Like Payne, Wickman also notes Bankrupt! follows the same basic template as Wolfgang: “Both albums are 10 tracks, kick off with a monster single, and have an extended and mostly instrumental track in the middle.” Hey, if you’re on to a good thing, and it’s taken you five albums to get there, why change it?
$2-per-word sentence: “After the group’s breakout 2009 album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, they’ve risen to top just about every bill they play on, from headlining Madison Square Garden in 2010 to headlining Coachella last weekend.”
Related French cliché: “Elles se ressemblent comme deux gouttes d’eau.” (“They’re like two peas in a pod.”)
_
_
The author: Simon Vozick-Levinson
The publication: Rolling Stone
Crux of article: Like many of the reviews floating around the interwebs, Vozick-Levinson wants us to know Phoenix have worked bloody hard. Apparently, they’ve been “brushing off concert promoters for more than a year”, “pushing past their comfort zone, experimenting at raucous volumes on instruments including a cheap toy keyboard they’d found at a pawnshop”, and even, out of sheer exhaustion, turning down some “lucrative opportunities” to DJ in Switzerland. But back to the album: Vozick-Levinson is impressed by Bankrupt!‘s “psychedelic blend of live and programmed instrumentation swirling around Mars’ vocals” and considers its “catchiest tunes more complex than they appear.” It probably doesn’t hurt that they were mixed “on the vintage console used for Michael Jackson’s Thriller.” Ebay, full of gems!
$2-per-word sentence: “Over the next year, they nailed down Bankrupt!‘s 10 songs – from proggy visions like the seven-minute title track, whose burbling electronic intro blossoms into New Romantic majesty, to lush synth-pop starbursts like the lead single, ‘Entertainment’.”
Related French cliché: “On est dans un beau pétrin.” (“We’re in a fine mess.”)
_
The author: Michael Nelson
The publication: Stereogum
Crux of article: Despite “more or less loving the album” (largely due to a personal love for the band that is both “nebulous and unquantifiable”), Nelson believes Bankrupt! will be “the first Phoenix record that will yield a lesser return than its predecessor.” To support his point, he invokes Chris Molanphy’s AC/DC Rule: “The initial sales of an album, particularly a blockbuster, are a referendum on the public’s feelings about the act’s prior album, not the current one.”
For Nelson, “Bankrupt! is not a weird record, but it is the weirdest Phoenix record”, “an assortment of disparate fragments of songs cropped, cut-and-pasted together, and run through an Instagram filter or two.” His favourite song is ‘Bourgeois’, a track that somehow evokes late-period Blur, the Thompson Twins’ ‘Hold Me Now’ AND Bon Iver’s ‘Beth/Rest’, but the others lack “an identity” and “aren’t necessarily memorable.” Or, to put it more poetically: “[It’s] made up of deliciously sweet, richly textured songs that fill the space between the headphones with an intoxicating floral pungency, but melt away as quickly as a scoop of mint chip gelato spilled on a New Orleans sidewalk.” So, meh.
$2-per-word sentence: “In fact, I might venture to say these are the sleekest, smoothest contours Phoenix has ever produced, and even when that means gliding across them like raindrops along the hood of a freshly waxed SRX cruising comfortably at 75, with no hope of hanging on to anything at all, it’s still a sweet, sweet ride.”
Related French cliché: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” (“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”)
_
_
The author: Chris Martins
The publication: Spin
The crux of the article: … is basically a healthy link to the band’s Coachella performance last week, which “may have unintentionally short-circuited a few thousand minds when they brought out R. Kelly.”
$2-per-word-sentence: “So while the record may not contain any left-field cameos from R&B superstars, it is a wholly refreshing listen — something fans can appreciate whether they’re coming doing from a weekend of festivalling or simply fighting off a case of the Tuesdays.”
Related French cliché: “R. Kelly.” (“R.Kelly.”)
_
Bankrupt! is out now through Liberator Music/Glassnote Entertainment/LOYAUTÉ.