Phoenix // Bankrupt

I've never listened to Phoenix before. Their entire back catalogue completely passed me by, even the widely acclaimed ‘Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix’. I suppose coming into a review with such substantial ignorance could be a blessing; would ‘Bankrupt!’ be the album to drag me out of the ashes and form me into a fully-fledged fiery Phoenix fan? Well, in short, no. No it wouldn't. It would make me listen to Julian Casablancas’ ‘Phrazes For The Young’ again though. It's always difficult for a band to live up to the word revolutionary. And yet, despite the obvious pitfalls of suggesting your next record would be anything other than a slight variation of what had come before, revolutionary is how Phoenix have chosen to bill Bankrupt! I suppose hailing from Versailles gives the quartet a certain right to use that word, but even so, it was a move that would prove the album's undoing. Going into it expecting something exciting and experimental, album opener 'Entertainment' actually provides very little, and the whole album kind of follows suit. No, that's a bit unfair. The songs Phoenix have written are actually perfectly adequate, but as I mentioned earlier, they’re just not as good as their forebears’ efforts. Phoenix have a pretty strong affiliation with the very ‘cool’ Parisian label Kitsuné, but whilst French synthy-indie was enough for me in the mid-late 00s, it takes a lot more to impress me now. To bastardise old Bob; “the times, they have a-changed.” 5/10