Alpha Zulu
Album by Phoenix
Released 4 November 2022
Synthpop / Pop Rock
Label – Glassnote
Rating – 6/10
Phoenix scour for olive branches…in a museum!
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The Musée des Arts décoratifs is a decorative arts museum – no shit – located within the north-western wing of the Louvre Palace. Versailles indie pop-synthpop veterans Phoenix recorded their seventh album in the museum’s studio, with no plan in mind but to write and produce music, to conceive art surrounded by art.
With ozone symphonies pumping through the midst of 2009’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, it feels as though Phoenix have regularly formed their music with a beginning and end – wedging a heartbreaking middle – in mind; a top and bottom, an A to Z, an Alpha Zulu. Despite Alpha Zulu’s on-the-fly intentions lying elsewhere, with free-thought and taking in the scenery at the forefront, its emphasis is on curvaceous dance pop, the conventional kind, flaunting easy-access and structural incomplexities.
Cited as a “fantastic adventure”, the album’s ‘night at the museum’ beginnings appear synthetically, only applying an appropriate aesthetic as All Eyes on Me incorporates a harpsichord. Otherwise, conventionally-attractive dance pop is the seal, as synth-heavy as past works, which comes with highs and lows. As I personally found the synth overtness of 2013’s Bankrupt as likeable and catchy as Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, this approach does have some appeal.
But as drowned chants take over My Elixir, it seems we’re a long way from…well…Phoenix. Like manic mood swings, the tone drops, mirroring the snores of Winter Solstice whilst contrasting the glitterball highs of After Midnight. As if the free-roaming, Springsteen-y subtext of After Midnight wasn’t appealing enough, its best asset bolsters serious synths that emerge as the wayward, life-affirming preambles check out.
The self-produced presentation – an homage to former producer Philippe Zdar, who passed away in 2019 – does seem nostalgic, which fields advantages over amicable cuts like Artefact and Identical, the latter of which actually screams at the listener “I’m no prophet, I’M YOUR FRIEND”. They don’t match any 2009 singles like one or two from Bankrupt might, but their respective reminiscence might be enough for long-time fans, as will the general ease of synthpop.
Oftentimes, Phoenix’s time-travelling staircase contains a few nuanced steps. One could picture deep house keys finding a place on the title track, as if they allude to multi-styled additions that aren’t really there. The counter is Thomas Mars’ scenery-chewing, flailing the words “WOO-HA singing hallelujah” like an unhinged Al Pacino – well, slightly more unhinged. Those same imaginary trinkets ignite Season 2, otherwise an ordinary indie pop tune that I’m sure even Paramore have made.
The staircase leads to the ‘80s as The Only One quotes Forever Young whilst slipping into semi-digital synth patches contently MGMT, but again, MGMT tributing their own influences. Reminiscence retains its meta tendencies on Tonight; Ezra Koenig contributes only likeminded, photogenic, striped-sweater-wearing vocals, but a beacon is thrusted toward Phoenix’s earlier days; guitars that vow to flick into disco, only to be contained by rock-focussed rhythms.
Marking their own relativity, Phoenix do seem as eager to ignite older fires as they do adhere to their museum surroundings on Alpha Zulu. Hypertonic pop amid a cognitive passage of time, the band’s seventh may be construed as appeasing, opposing any future optimism to crown a well-intended advancement of 2009 glory days, an infringement on the acres, visible horizons, and love-like sunsets of their old heart. But any replication is destined to scratch nostalgic itches, reminiscing Phoenix’s pop embrace during a time when those jaded by the mainstream were ambushed with 3OH!3 and the worst of the Black Eyed Peas.
Best track – After Midnight.
Weakest tracks – Winter Solstice – My Elixir.
Rating – 6 out of 10
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