Word: phoenix
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...Tabloid by Phoenix,” released earlier this year by painfully Parisian record-label-cum-design-house Kitsuné, is the first of these releases. Described by the band as a group of “little treasures that have had this huge impact and amazed us,” the collection is as much a straightforward mixtape as it is a full disclosure of their tastes and influences. The individual value of each of the 20 tracks on “Tabloid” is apparent to the listener—both in terms of their musical...
...such a shy bunch of fellas, French band Phoenix sure has been getting around. Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien, and Lourne Michaels have all welcomed the quartet into their studios, offering them the national exposure their slow-burn career (the guys have been together for over 10 years now) has heretofore lacked. While this recent introduction to the mainstream speaks to the accessibility of their genre-spanning pop tunes, a series of recent audio and visual releases by the band highlights their passion for fostering a discourse on a staggeringly broad range of music. In doing...
...number of the songs on “Tabloid” are taken from white artists as profoundly influenced by black music as Phoenix has been. Selected gems from these singers and songwriters—Elvis Costello, Dusty Springfield, Lou Reed, the Dirty Projectors, to name a few—are paired with songs by preceding, contemporaneous, and succeeding black artists—The Impressions, D’Angelo. For Phoenix, stylistic connections trump relations of chronology or influence. Placing Elvis Costello’s schmaltzy, intricate “Shipbuilding,” just before D’Angelo?...
...more literal) level. Running nearly 70 minutes, and consisting of little more than shots of a spinning turntable with the band’s commentary edited over the music, “Musicvision” is certainly a commitment. The video, directed by Guillaume Dellaperriere, confirms what Phoenix was only able to say through implication on the Kitsuné record. A song by foundational ’60s band The Red Krayola “Victory Garden,” for instance, is featured on both outputs. Whereas on the “Tabloid,” the song?...
With “Tabloid” and “Musicvision,” the four lifelong friends that comprise Phoenix give us entrée into the most profound and lasting of their “Aha!” moments, recalling a line from that most French of films, “Jules and Jim.” On the friendship of the two protagonists, the film’s narrator comments, “Each taught the other his language and culture... They shared their poetry and translated them together...