A Round of Sound

“Do you remember when 21 years was old?” sings Thomas Mars on “Countdown”, one of the many great tracks from the fourth (and best) album from French pop-rockers Phoenix. It’s in this simple lyric that he maybe provides the best example of the sense of nostalgia that seems to carry Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix from just a fun danceable indie rock album, to a career defining work of art. You have to love a French band who writes and records all their music in English (thanks guys!), but what’s more impressive is that this is band who has not only mastered an American genre such as the NYC garage-band revival made popular by The Strokes, but also taken it to a level that similar American bands (like…The Strokes) have stalled to get to. Joining “Countdown” as album standouts is the best 1-2 punch of the year in “Lisztomania” and “1901” which open the album with two of the best tracks released in 2009 and are a great introduction to the rest of the tightly-constructed tunes that make up the disc. And while Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix may not be as in-your-face nostalgic as say, M83’s Saturday’s=Youth or The Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s self titled release from earlier this year, it’s still hard to listen to the album and not get some sense of sentimentality for times gone by. It’s in the ambient electronics heard throughout, it’s in the lyrics, but nostalgic or not, Phoenix have created a great album that should appeal to all fans from those of indie-dance to NYC garage-rock, and really just anyone who wants to listen to catchy pop-rock by a band who has subtly put itself in rarefied air.

[“Lisztomania” – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix]

[“1901” – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix]

This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 5:46 pm and is filed under Album Reviews, All, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.