Four springs ago the radio was flooded with the sounds of this catchy song about last call in the fantasy version of Paris, it soundtracked every WB teen-angst TV show out there, and wouldn’t go away. But did anyone really want the French New Wave darlings, Phoenix, to go away? Such a fun poppy band, the world should be asking for more of them and less of the other crap floating around out there.
But for four long years fans waited for Bankrupt! to be released and just over a month ago, their wishes were granted.
I have to admit, when I first saw the album artwork, I felt it should have gone to a more kitschy band, like Morningwood, or something more garage rocky, like The Donnas. But I wasn’t going to let a sliced peach keep me from listening to the coveted tracks. How could I not be pumped for an album that boasts a track entitled “Drakkar Noir”?
On first listen, I noticed the album was missing that big anthemic track that previous albums had, you can’t tell me Lisztomania and 1901 don’t make you want to roll down your windows and sing along no matter how off-key. It seems more like their album Alphabetical, just more up-beat.
As they stated in an interview with MTV two years ago, this album was meant to be a departure from what they’ve done in the past, Phoenix themselves stated that the album would be experimental. And experimental it is.
Pressing “play” unleashed sounds that made me pause and make sure I hadn’t accidentally queued up David Bowie’s “China Girl” (and yes I know Iggy Pop did it in 1977). The Oriental Riff continues through the opening song, “Entertainment”.
From there it kinda just goes into this other world. Some of the lyrics sound like Nikki Minaj wrote them, disjointed and makes you wonder if Phoenix is just too clever for you to understand or if something got lost in the French to English translation.
I was expecting a continuation of what Phoenix had be doing, but I’d probably be writing a post about how Phoenix is lazy for recycling sound/ideas/feel and no better than Nickelback. But I really don’t know how to continue discussing an album that is word vomit, tracked to an amazing drum sequence in a disgustingly, flowtastic format. It’s not the heavy punk sound I’m usually listening to, but I always need something to soundtrack my cleaning sprees.
All in all, I give it 4 out of 5 stars. Like I said, I really wanted those sing along songs, maybe it’ll be different in a live setting, but until then it’s a solid 5th studio album.