Phoenix
Record review
Reviewed by Darcie Stevens, Fri., June 16, 2006
Phoenix
It's Never Been Like That (Astralwerks)
A snare battery blasts in with high staccato guitar, and it's immediate: This is a departure. No longer is Versailles quartet Phoenix mired in the ambience of fellow Frenchmen Air; no longer is soft-rock irony a driving force in their music. Led by the smooth vox of Thomas Mars, It's Never Been Like That is more immediate than 2004's sexy Alphabetical, and before that, 2000 debut United. Aforementioned opener "Napoleon Says" nods to the band's new anything-goes aesthetic with twin guitars, while album highlight "Long Distance Call" mixes the familiar Phoenix roll with a more modern beat that sticks like Velcro to Mars' line "Long time no see, long time no say." Europop informs the slaphappy "Rally" and sassy "Courtesy Laughs," but the ideas behind the music seem uniquely American. After instrumental "North" caves into "Sometimes in the Fall" with a quiet, Kings of Convenience urging, "Second to None" closes the half-hour LP with bubbly confidence. Written and recorded simultaneously in Germany, Like That gives new meaning to the word "alive." Phoenix's heart is beating strong.
