Phoenix return with new album ‘Alpha Zulu’
After half a decade away from the music world, French electronic rockers Phoenix have returned with their seventh studio album, Alpha Zulu. Instead of hiring someone from the outside, the band decided to self-produce their record for the first time. And you know what: this might be the most Phoenix-sounding Phoenix record of all time.
If you’re looking for the extraordinary dance-pop explosion of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix or the wonky conceptualism of Bankrupt!, I’ve got bad news for you: Alpha Zulu ain’t that. What it is, instead, is ten tracks of dancefloor-ready jams that hit exactly what listeners expect from Phoenix, nothing more and nothing less.
Kicking off with the buzzy title track, Alpha Zulu unfurls in a strange haze that only gets broken through thanks to Thomas Mars’ crystal-clear vocals. There’s no lack of hooks throughout the album, especially once the band pair up with Vampire Weekend lead singer Ezra Koenig for the album’s highlight, ‘Tonight’.
Once Koenig returns to the wings, the energy of Alpha Zulu starts to slump as Phoenix get caught up in repeating themselves. Those repetitions aren’t bad: the three-song run of ‘The Only One’, ‘After Midnight’, and ‘Winter Solstice are woozy and wonderfully low-key compared to the hectic beginning of the LP.
Whereas their best work is either perfectly pristine or bizarrely cracked, Alpha Zulu is somewhere in between. The album feels like it wants to take off into weirder territory, but every time it does, the band remembers that they’re Phoenix and pull back into safer, more straightforward, and admittedly more fun areas.
The back half of an album is usually where bands feel the freedom to stretch their legs, but Phoenix decide to just keep chugging along. Mars opening up ‘Season 2’ with “Giddy up I’m bored” is just begging for trouble, but to their credit, Phoenix are never boring on Alpha Zulu. Do they sometimes sound like they’re on autopilot? Absolutely. Is Phoenix’s autopilot still enjoyable to listen to? You bet your ass it is.
All told, Alpha Zulu is a very “walk, don’t run” kind of record. Not a single song feels like any kind of risk or stretch, even though all ten tracks are enjoyable. If you want to turn off your mind, relax, and party like it’s the early 2010s, then Alpha Zulu is the perfect escape. It’s even a halfway-decent stoner record, although it’s probably a bit too energetic and shiny to really get comfortable with its heady grooves.
If you’re looking for something truly challenging or transcendent, then Alpha Zulu isn’t going to leave much of an impression. But then again, Phoenix was never really that kind of band anyway. In the interest of knowing themselves, few other bands know exactly what they do well the way that Phoenix does. They’re not a band that’s going to put out the album of the year, but with the right approach, Alpha Zulu still hits all its marks to get the party started.
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