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The synth-pop sound and effortless mixing of low- and up-tempo songs that led Phoenix to monumental success with its 2009 album, “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix,” remains in the group’s new album, “Bankrupt!”
The 10-track album is the fifth studio album for the Parisian band and experiments with and sometimes improves upon its previous album’s framework.
The album’s title track “Bankrupt!” is a seven-minute treat for listeners’ ears. “Bankrupt!” easily changes from a beautiful and slow initial instrumental progression to a fizzy electronic sound that picks up speed and then slows to finally break into dreamy vocals by frontman Thomas Mars more than halfway into the song.
Like “Bankrupt!” the song “Bourgeois” starts with a slow progression of electronics. Mars then starts singing sweetly and softly, “Darling you never know/ It started years ago/ When you’re less than kind of done.” The instrumental progression and gentle tone of “Bourgeois” is reminiscent of “Love Like a Sunset Pt. II,” from “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix”. The song’s slow rhythm encourages the listener to sway and follow Mars’ instruction to “Sing sha la la la la la la.”
Phoenix brings the pace back up for “Entertainment” and “Oblique City.” “Entertainment” is a predictable, somewhat formulaic single that does not match the creativity of other tracks, such as “Oblique City.” Both songs’ quick rhythms make them potential radio hits for the band, but neither one of the tracks is quite as infectious as “Lisztomania” or “1901.”
Even if “Oblique City” is not as catchy as Phoenix’s former hits, it still successfully experiments with high and low tempos, and smooth, fizzy synths to create another track that entrances the listener. “Entertainment” and “Oblique City” are the album’s first and last songs respectively and their similarly upbeat tempos showcase Phoenix’s gift for symmetry.
Phoenix continues to be creative in “Drakkar Noir.” The song features twinkling synths that expertly blend the band’s keyboard, drums and guitar into a track that at times seems almost exploding with energy.
Like much of the album, “Chloroform” and “The Real Thing” feature some slow synths and expert crooning by Mars. “Chloroform” takes its time with its slow tempo and ends with a beautiful flute-like synth. “The Real Thing” is not quite as pretty as “Chloroform,” but it has an enjoyable insistence about it when Mars sings “Follow, follow, follow me.”
Some of the album’s songs like “Don’t” are not very creative and seem to be following the exact framework of “Wolfgang.” “Don’t” is still a decent song that once again encourages the listener to sing along with Mars’ slow crooning, but it has a predictable rhythm, and does not contain much of the experimentations with differing speeds and synths included in much of “Bankrupt!”
“Bankrupt!” is a nice follow-up to “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.” Phoenix’s experimentation with differing rhythms within songs and fizzier synths may have cost them some of the mass appeal “Wolfgang” had, but the band ultimately creates an album that is still very enjoyable.
Email Napolitano at rnapolitano@media.ucla.edu.
Correction: Phoenix’s name was misspelled.
*Phoenix