Day 255: Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

I wouldn’t say I’m doing particularly bad today but it’s just been a bit of a slog. I need to artificially pump myself up by listening to something that’s vaguely uplifting and/or reminds me of the halcyon days – everybody get your Jeffree Campbell Litas from the closet, dust off your old Tumblr account, we’re taking a trip to 2009 with Phoenix.

Album cover courtesy of Loyauté

Phoenix were formed in 1995 in Versailles by a group of three school friends, singer Thomas Mars, bassist Deck d'Arcy and guitarist Chris Mazzalai. Later Mazzalai’s brother joined after his own group Darlin’ broke up, with the other two members of that trio going on to form Daft Punk. They started releasing music in 1999 and slowly started gaining momentum, especially after being featured on the Lost in Translation soundtrack. Mars later married the film’s director Sofia Coppola.

The confidently named Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix was released in 2009 as the band’s fourth studio album, and it got them a fair bit of mainstream success: it was subject to a lot of hype and earned them a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album, with “1901” becoming their biggest song to date.

This sort of early 2010s era indie pop reminds me of being a drunk teenager out and about on various dance floors or parks or hanging out at beaches at night, this would be what we’d listened to. Having not put it on in years, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is a massive trip down memory lane. And it’s good, it’s not just nostalgia-good but it’s actually an album that’s sunny and joyful and fun to listen to. It sounds like youth in sunny weather.

Phoenix is back on the menu, I don’t know how I forgot about these guys in the first place. Great album. It’s very easily a 9/10, it’ll keep me going for a good few weeks. As much as this project is about me discovering new stuff, I might start mining the archives a bit more, too.