Phoenix - Bankrupt!

http://wearephoenix.com/

No shit, be careful about clicking that link if you're prone to epileptic seizures.

But also, new Phoenix album!

<blink> tag to the extreeeeeme!

1 FLASH
10 PRINT "FUCK YOU"
20 GOTO 10

^^classic BASIC

Also built in flash. o_O

Awesome. Not the website.

here was the thread no one responded to, haha:

Phoenix - TPC (come anticipate the April 2013 album)

Oh noes!

Let success go to their head, I see, and now theyve spent all their money? That sucks!

Oh whoops nevrmind *'_'*

Website noodle sounds like Daft Punk's "Tron" score.

instant classic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=86_TqlVQscQ#at=109

that's just about perfect

Brilliant comeback. If they ever put out a singles compilation it's going to be incredible.

OMG THIS IS AMAZING

thanks for the song Jordan!

no problem, bee ok. i think it's one of the best songs i've ever written, glad you enjoyed it.

realizing I never really had a phoenix shaped hole in my heart. okay with leaving this band behind. everybody else, enjoy! namaste

I give it an 8.9

My 70-year-old former music-industry friend who thinks they are the best band ever is crushingly disappointed in the single.

Saturated sound

I find this so boring. can't understand the excitement.
but I must say I find this band mostly dull and annoying so...

I fuck with Too Young and If I Ever Feel Better and Everything Is Everything, all three are amazing pop records, this one is a bit of a mess though. Also I hate his voice nowadays.

Matt DC otm

I love the album "Its Never Been Like That". this is just too polished for me.

great lyrics, great song. i like it a lot: it,s up there with the other 3 or 4 phoenix songs that i like. it would be great if there is at least another one that i will like on the album but anyway, "just" having a handful of great songs is not cheap at all.

song's not that great imo, don't get ^^^

Phoenix have always been high gloss. It's Never Been Like That is polished to an inch of its life. The production here sounds a lot like parts of Wolfgang Amadeus (1901 or Lasso or Armistice). Hard to see how that could be a deal breaker for anyone who's been a fan of the band up til now.

HAIM is the new Phoenix.

wow that might just be the most OTM thing Moka has ever said

i keep hearing "om nom nom nom nom nom"

The thing I've always liked about Phoenix is that at their best, the band sounds like they're playing the song too fast and Thomas is falling behind, like he can't keep up, and it gives the song a breathless urgency. This song is nice! But I like breathless sweaty Phoenix

The song just keeps making me think of all those songs from the 80's with vaguely oriental sounding riffs like "Turning Japanese", "China Girl", "Hong Kong Garden", "Japanese Boy", etc.

lul yes the "chinoiserie" sound hit me like you at first, was wondering where they were going with that.

this is good i like the farting cactus synthbass

Ok I thought they really go bankrupt, that'll be a relief...oh maybe not.

Quite like this album.

Think this might be favourite Phoenix album so far. I know it's early days but I already like it way more than the last album as it's a lot more varied (I can never remember which songs are which on the second side) As always the production is just amazing.

I had settled into thinking they're a band that would put out nothing but solid 8/10 albums but never actually make their masterpiece (until they put out a Best of) but I'm really loving this straight away, easily their most instant album for me.

teh last one for me was clearly their masterpiece - god how many times I listened to it. I esp liked the haunting motorik trance they had going on here and there (obv Love Like a Sunset in partic)

Last one (especially) and Alphabet (?) are my favourites. I never got on with It's Never Been Like That; it's a horrible compressed sheen that I have no memory of. Unsure whether I'm looking forward to this one or not...

Was a bit unsure at first but it's really grown on me. The run from Bankrupt to Bourgeois is particularly strong. Could live without the fade outs on some of the tracks though.

as with all phoenix albums, there is plenty to enjoy here

thomas mars is really good at repeating the same line over and over

i like "bourgeois" and its widescreen sentimentality and the jolting change up in "the real thing" and how "trying to be cool" transcends its impossibly jarring title and yeah it's basically a great record. can't wait for a better / non-terrible rip!

thomas mars is really good at repeating the same line over and over

OTM.
Part of how these guys manage to rise from plodding Stokes-isms to the sublime

i like this a lot but yeah this rip is so bad

though tbh i don't anticipate a better rip like making a drastic difference for an album that's so shimmery and slick already

Fuck me that's the most phenomenologically horrible thing I've listened to in ages. Turned it off after about thirty seconds, and that was on the iMac. Jesus. Unlistenable.

man i love that first album so much. everything else always sounded so boring to me. that first album is way better than any strokes music i've ever heard.

The run from Bankrupt to Bourgeois is particularly strong. Could live without the fade outs on some of the tracks though.

― groovypanda

Yeah I agree this is the peak of the album. The last album was a bit front loaded so it's nice how strong the secand half is. I noticed the fade outs too.

The third song on this album sounds exactly like what The Strokes were aiming for on their last album, especially the "You can't cross the line but you can't stop trying" bit. I didn't like It's Never Been Like That at the time as it ripped off The Strokes a bit too much but it grew on me.

Does anyone know anything about the second disc of the deluxe edition? 71 tracks according to Amazon.

1.The Bankrupt! Diaries (71 Sketches From The Bankrupt Sessions) 01:04:27

Wait a minute, isn't the new song sort of basically:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM7Hlg75Mlo

oblique city indeed

Listening to this now. "Entertainment!"

...er, sounds like something off WAP for sure.

Re. "The Real Thing," it took me a few minutes to have any idea what people were talking about w/r/t "When Doves Cry."

None of the songs so far has blown me away the way "Lisztomania" did the first time I heard it -- but maybe they'll have more staying power.

I think The Real Thing is a real corker. Sadly one of the better songs on the album though, all in all.

It reminds me of Tangerine Dream's 'Phaedra' (the synths on the whole album remind me of it actually), but it is a bit directionless, meandering without the ecstatic climax or punch.

I'd say Stratosphear-era TD but that would be quibbling.

lol at the itunes page saying "mastered for itunes" like that's a selling point.

That said, as a Linndrum owner myself and lover of 70s synth arpeggios, I wholeheartedly approve of their application here. I just wish they were sitting in a mix that let us really hear them in all their glory.

Any thoughts? Or is everyone up all night to get funky?

It reminds me of Tangerine Dream's 'Phaedra' (the synths on the whole album remind me of it actually), but it is a bit directionless, meandering without the ecstatic climax or punch.

Yeah, I too like the melancholy in their sound. I feel it is more buried under the sheen of synths and a 'glammy' nod on this album, but it is still there, fortunately.

And I agree that the midpoint is not as good as 'Sunset'. Structure wise it does feel like they tried to copy WAF, which is a shame for it feels a bit forced. But I am nowhere near giving up on them, there is still so much to enjoy on this album, even when I do feel confident to say it is not their best effort.

Anyone else listened to the second disc? A few interesting snippets but most of them cut off abruptly and some of them sound like Thomas is trying his hand at shredding Phoenix. Not sure it's something I'd listen to again.

Hate INBLT.

Free DL: Dirty Projectors remix of Entertainment:

https://soundcloud.com/phoenix/entertainment-dirty-projectors

I hope the rest of the album grows on me as much as Entertainment has

wth their drummer is from Cult of Luna

I hope the rest of the album grows on me as much as Entertainment has

i didn't feel a need for immediacy in buying a copy of this so i've put it off until prices abated online. then was in the record store today and bought it on a whim and found out that, a week later, all copies come w/ that incredibly sweet korean phoenix concert poster as seen in the Entertainment video

worth purchase alone, honestly. the poster is a fucking sweet incentive

It's starting to for me.

*Quite* liking this so far, although nothing like the immediacy that I got from WAP. "Entertainment" and "The Real Thing" clear stand outs, the rest feels quite dense but without much in the way of strong melodies, but expect repetition might reveal stuff.

Got to say that I'm having real problems with the production/mastering, specifically the needles-in-red loudness that smothers everything and which has been ref'd upthread. I know that Phoenix have been guilty of this to various degrees on their other albums, but this is their first one that feels rly difficult to listen for me; I tried giving it a blast on my hi-fi at the weekend and it was horrible even at reasonable volume, just a brash and sludgy mess. Considering they're such perfectionists in other regards I'm surprised they don't care about (or actively endorse) this.

Yeah, I don't think this is a bad record, but it is oppressively produced/mastered. I had to turn it way the fuck down.

Hear a lot of Prince in this one.

I didn't want to mention it, because I'm vaguely loathe to be that guy who always bangs on about mastering / sound etc, but this sounds fucking awful and I don't want to listen to it.

just put this on for the first time and my immediate feeling was that it sounds fucking awful -- that sound at the beginning is so grating.

I feel like someone is brillo scrubbing my ears, I don't think I can even leave this on

Yeah, it feels like they've gone for a different sound, using the same production. Sharp and punchy, but with what sounds like cheap software synths?

Album has definitely grown on me thou.

I like this better than the last one - less HUGE and all the better for it

u crazy

It has been remarked

I didn't want to mention it, because I'm vaguely loathe to be that guy who always bangs on about mastering / sound etc, but this sounds fucking awful and I don't want to listen to it.

I'm with you on this. I tried, but it's physically exhausting to listen to. I feel like the FBI should be using this album as sonic warfare against barricaded tea partiers.

I'm with Raymond on this one. There is nothing on there as good as 1901 but overall I like it a fair bit more than the last one. I can never tell those songs on the second half of Wolfgang apart.

Bizarre.

Track 4 onward is where it's at for me.

i think of this album as a companion piece to julian casablancas' solo one. i love it but the brickwalled mastering gets a bit much after a while. the type of album that probably would sound worse on vinyl.

Is the CD mastered as poorly as the streaming versions I've heard? I'm assuming the "Mastered for iTunes" version is what's used on Spotify, MOG, etc.

The CD is pretty horrific. Unlistenable to me, basically.

The CD sounds fine to me.

Still surprised how little talk there has been about this album, it's probably my second favourite album of theirs after Alphabetical.

I have to confess I arrived at a point of thinking about buying this today (via the fairly circuitous route of a colleague mentioning they were going on holiday to Norway > prompting me to play a compilation I made for an old Norway holiday > playing Erlend Oye's DJ Kicks > thinking "Ooh, Phoenix" > having a Phoenix "phase") but couldn't recall reading anything about it and presuming no-one cared anymore ...

The CD sounds fine to me.

I love this band but I keep forgetting to listen to this.

Hey, I really like this album.

So, er, there.

Not since Metallica's "St. Anger" has there seemed to be so much (generally speaking) consensus that an album sounds so harsh it's too hard to listen to it. The songs in my case are almost irrelevant, because it requires such an active and distracting modulation of volume and stuff when I put it on that I really don't bother. I'm afraid to put it on my iPod, because I can't imagine the headphone experience could possibly make its impact any less brick-to-the-ears.

But clearly there are people who listen to this without problems, so ... who knows.

I still like this album a lot but I have cotton in my ears.

With just three weeks to go, there was a venue change from the UIC Pavilion to the much smaller Aragon, and even then I understand the band is barely on track to fill a fraction of the latter venue. Overexposure because they just played Lollapalooza? Or maybe this album really isn't clicking.

I'm sure I read on the Hoffman board of how the download code mp3s were from vinyl test pressings, or something? Are they meant to be any better?

Desperately waiting for another 25 Hours a Day remix of Phoenix

This set kind of makes Phoenix seem like the best band around. Also I never really noticed just how incredible the drummer is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NI4bDl_fTM

The drummer is soooooooo good. That was my takeaway when I saw them play a club right before they broke.

http://pitchfork.com/features/update/9199-r-kelly-and-phoenix/

not sure ignition works tbh - and the trying to be cool remix just sounds weird (they should have re-recorded it together), but hey, cool interview. r kelly sounds happy.

Is the CD really that bad?

Fucking hell Chloroform is a terrible song. I honestly don't know how they could record that and think it would somehow be even adequate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve-wbcIfZDI

i'm on board if they're aiming for Naughty Boys-era YMO this album