Product description

Bankrupt! is the first Phoenix album in four years. It's not a political or financial statement. It offers no solutions to the world's major problems, nor does it advocate embracing debt with enthusiasm. It sounds almost nothing like old Phoenix albums. While it was made by the same people who made the previous albums, they didn't necessarily play the same instruments. These people are: Thomas Mars, Laurent "Branco" Brancowitz, Christian Mazzalai, and Deck d'Arcy. It was written and recorded in New York City and Paris, produced by the band themselves and Philippe Zdar in Montmartre. Champagne was involved. It contains ten songs, no more.

Bankrupt! is the result of a process that began when Phoenix left the stage at the end of their last tour, supporting their fourth, Grammy-winning, and universally acclaimed gold album, "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix." At the end of 2010, the band went to Oscilloscope Laboratories in Manhattan and continued their experiments with sound and color. This experimental phase lasted three months—a time during which the band developed a sense of nostalgia for their native France. Laurent Brancowitz recalls that these feelings began after watching a film set in Paris that featured images of the Seine and the Eiffel Tower. Each band member revisited their youth to rediscover past inspirations: Jacno, Alain Bashung, Alain Chamfort, Roy Andersson, Eric Rohmer, François Truffaut, Franco Battiato, Lucio Battisti, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Many of these influences will not necessarily be apparent to the listener.

Bankrupt! is not interchangeable pop music. Although the songs are quite pleasant on first listen, further listens reveal a deeper connection and satisfaction – which is absolutely intentional. “This album has multiple layers,” says Brancowitz. “The more you play it, the more you hear and understand what’s going on. At the same time, we also wanted it to be really fluid and simple, like a sphere of marble. At first, you just see a sphere – but there’s a guy who spent a year polishing it.”

This tension between simplicity and complexity is also evident in the pentatonic structure that runs throughout the album – for example, in songs like "Entertainment" and "Drakkar Noir," or the Wagnerian overdrives of "SOS in Bel-Air" and "Oblique City." Bankrupt! is, quite intentionally, a dizzying experience for the listener. "We felt this vertigo, this feeling of being on the verge of failure," says Brancowitz. "That's something we really like to explore. After a while, you realize that the most interesting things in life aren't success or triumph, but rather the possibility that it could all come crashing down."

Bankrupt! can therefore be described as the triumph of accepting failure. Again: It won't solve any problems. But it can evoke catharsis, euphoria, or inspiration.

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