http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGbVaJ5kl7s
Shook (one of my favorite remix artists) takes Phoenix's Lisztomania and makes it more French, more disco-poppy, more dance hall, more syncopated and synth-y, more sparse and reverb, stripping it down to its minimalist essentials, the choralized vocals; it builds back up a bassline, a clav synth, and claps, and pretty much nothing else. And you get this portrait of a song which has been torn open, ribs exposed, and you can see how it works; the song swells properly as the bridge leads into the chorus; the bassline mirrors the repetitions, and the song trudges along nn-ts, nn-ts like a good disco song, connecting another remix bridge between time periods, dragging the past out into the light, examining the stuff Phoenix is made of.
Showing posts with label phoenix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label phoenix. Show all posts
Monday, April 15, 2013
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Everything Is Everything — Phoenix
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFVeSefg72U
Good pop — pop that doesn't make you feel guilty for liking something popular; pop that isn't simply dumb; pop that isn't about sex or clubs — pop that is about a mood and a feeling, this is rare pop. Old Phoenix, before they were incredibly famous, when they were a little alt-rock outfit from Versailles, this was good, rare pop. And it is — you can choose to listen to the lyrics. They're mostly meaningless, and they know it. And the chords are nothing special, and the instrumentation has some nice jazz chords and surprisingly complex rhythms, but those aren't the reasons we like pop. We like pop because it strikes just the right balance between predictable rhythms and tones and new, fresh timbres. We want to be tickled — not pained, not to have to strive to pay attention, and not to be bored. Listening to this song, I'm tickled. It's cute and charming and interesting; there are four guitars weaving in and out, the acoustic guitar providing some great rhythms, there's dynamics, but moreover it just works.
Good pop — pop that doesn't make you feel guilty for liking something popular; pop that isn't simply dumb; pop that isn't about sex or clubs — pop that is about a mood and a feeling, this is rare pop. Old Phoenix, before they were incredibly famous, when they were a little alt-rock outfit from Versailles, this was good, rare pop. And it is — you can choose to listen to the lyrics. They're mostly meaningless, and they know it. And the chords are nothing special, and the instrumentation has some nice jazz chords and surprisingly complex rhythms, but those aren't the reasons we like pop. We like pop because it strikes just the right balance between predictable rhythms and tones and new, fresh timbres. We want to be tickled — not pained, not to have to strive to pay attention, and not to be bored. Listening to this song, I'm tickled. It's cute and charming and interesting; there are four guitars weaving in and out, the acoustic guitar providing some great rhythms, there's dynamics, but moreover it just works.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Love Like A Sunset — Phoenix
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5Lh9uyx1Zw
This is a song with movements; it could have been arranged for an orchestra, but it's produced in modern-pop style, with electronics and guitars and filtered vocals. It has stylistic transition periods at 3:46, 5:20, 5:47. It grows slowly and builds to a climax, cutting out and turning in on itself, and then reversing. It has structure. This is a song that takes patience to listen to, and more patience to write and record. This from a Paris garage rock band. I don't know or want to know the context, history, intentions for this song; its lyrics are meaningless; its chord structure is perfunctory. It performs one function, and that is to build and release, and it does this very, very well.
A lot of music tries to do everything — and I promised I wouldn't compare apples and oranges — it tries to provide storytelling, inspirational lyrics, a new sound, a frontman worthy of idolatry, a dance beat; it tries to be moving and uplifting. Any big band has to meet these checkmarks; they need to inspire and refresh and be new and different and brilliant, and where they falter, they are judged. But a tiny garage rock band from Paris, France needs only to satisfy their own aesthetics, and that is where Phoenix succeeds so succinctly.
This is a song with movements; it could have been arranged for an orchestra, but it's produced in modern-pop style, with electronics and guitars and filtered vocals. It has stylistic transition periods at 3:46, 5:20, 5:47. It grows slowly and builds to a climax, cutting out and turning in on itself, and then reversing. It has structure. This is a song that takes patience to listen to, and more patience to write and record. This from a Paris garage rock band. I don't know or want to know the context, history, intentions for this song; its lyrics are meaningless; its chord structure is perfunctory. It performs one function, and that is to build and release, and it does this very, very well.
A lot of music tries to do everything — and I promised I wouldn't compare apples and oranges — it tries to provide storytelling, inspirational lyrics, a new sound, a frontman worthy of idolatry, a dance beat; it tries to be moving and uplifting. Any big band has to meet these checkmarks; they need to inspire and refresh and be new and different and brilliant, and where they falter, they are judged. But a tiny garage rock band from Paris, France needs only to satisfy their own aesthetics, and that is where Phoenix succeeds so succinctly.
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