Instead of trying to do this all at the end of the year, I figure it would be easier to just make smaller posts with clips as the music is actually coming out. That being said, the new Phoenix album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, is out this week (physically), but I have been enjoying the digital release for the last couple of weeks (it has been out on itunes since May 12). Phoenix is a french band that hails from the same part of France (Versailles) that produced the likes of Air and Daft Punk. While there are shades of electronic-dance in what Phoenix does, I would say the similarities to Air and Daft Punk do not go much further than geographic coincidence (although I will say that the French always do a great job of looking cool).
At the core of it all, Phoenix is really just clean-cut pop-rock group (think Vampire Weekend if they did not care as much). On Wolfgang, the band's fourth full-length, Phoenix continues to churn out danceable, effervescent (occasionally synth - in a good way) rock numbers. Vocalist, Thomas Mars, has an effortless swagger in his delivery that leads me to believe he owns several leather jackets and only wears them over tight v-neck t-shirts. With some of the catchiest/most fun songs to come out so far this year, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix may be 2009's first big summer album (and its only May). Check out the infectious, "1901" below.
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