Alphabetical super

When it comes to music, you should always be suspicious of lazy comparisons. Phoenix have probably suffered more than most. By virtue of a) being French and b) making music that has vague dance connections, they have continually found themselves being mentioned alongside, yes, Daft Punk and Air. While there may have been a degree of accuracy in this when it came to their debut album United, the follow up Alphabetical looks set to place them apart as a band of rare and unique vision.

As vocalist Thomas Mars joins us down the line from Paris, I ask if it was a conscious decision to make such a different sounding record.
“Actually yes. When we looked at the first record after two years of touring, we realised that we wanted to do something really different in terms of musical style and to do something more personal. For us, United was a collection of styles that made sense four years ago, something really joyful, like kids playing with toys. With this album, we wanted to avoid the same references and find one big style and just go for it.”
The results are quite spectacular – a glorious, funky pop record that manages to reference both the dance and rock scenes without overtly being in either camp. It sounds lovely too, a quality the band were keen to achieve.
“We wanted this hybrid between organic instruments, technology and electronics,” says Thomas. “We were always looking for something warm and welcoming. When we use machines we look for something that has a human warmth, like something breathing or alive. For us, we are quite far from electronic music in terms of production. On this album we were tired of loops and unhuman things”.
Alphabetical also sees the four coming into their own as songwriters, particularly in the lyrics, which range from the personal to fascinating vignettes such as ‘I Am An Actor’.
“Being French, we wanted to take the fact that we were writing songs in English as an advantage, not just using clichés,” Thomas explains. “You can really do something interesting with a few words. I remember I was reading a lot of stuff by Hank Williams and I could understand everything. It’s all about bringing images together. The fact that I’m not English means that I come with other ideas. Things that to you would sound obvious are unknown territory. When it comes to lyrics it’s like poetry, it’s free. It’s the same with Air, I think they see things differently. When I write in English it’s pleasure, when I write in French it’s work”.

Alphabetical is released on Source on March 26