PHOENIX
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
(Loyaute/Glassnote)
Rating: 
The elegant Frenchmen of Phoenix came off like the Strokes in berets on 2005’s underrated It’s Never Been Like That, but their humbly (and hilariously) titled fourth album sounds like nothing else: It’s a gloriously sun-kissed collection of masterful electro pop. Hook-filled opener “Liszto mania” somehow makes an ode to the nineteenth-century composer sound as effortless as a summer afternoon, and the delicately swooning “Rome” seems handcrafted for a bittersweet, romantic art-house film that singer Thomas Mars’s wife, Sofia Coppola, hasn’t directed yet. An early contender for album of the année?We say oui.
