Alpha Zulu
| Alpha Zulu | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:Phoenix - Alpha Zulu.png | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 4 November 2022 | |||
| Recorded | 2020–2022 | |||
| Studio | Musée des Arts décoratifs (Paris) | |||
| Length | 35:23 | |||
| Label |
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| Producer | Phoenix | |||
| Phoenix chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Alpha Zulu | ||||
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Alpha Zulu is the seventh studio album by French indie pop band Phoenix, released on 4 November 2022 through Loyauté and Glassnote Records.[1] Self-produced by the band, it is their first album since 2017's Ti Amo. The singles "Identical", "Alpha Zulu", "Tonight", and "Winter Solstice" preceded the album. The band embarked on a North American tour in support of the album, which will visit the UK and Europe in October 2022.[2]
Background and recording
Phoenix began recording the album during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 at the Musée des Arts décoratifs studio, which is located within the Louvre Palace in Paris. Laurent Brancowitz said the band "felt it would be a fantastic adventure to create something out of nothing" in an empty museum. Christian Mazzalai said that despite his initial concerns of making something while being surrounded by "too much beauty", the band "couldn't stop producing music" and that they wrote "almost all" of Alpha Zulu within the first 10 days.[3] The album was inspired by Philippe Zdar of the band Cassius, who died in 2019.[1] Zdar produced three of Phoenix's albums.
The song "Identical" was first released in 2020 on the soundtrack for Sofia Coppola's film On the Rocks.[4] Following the song's release, frontman Thomas Mars stated that it "goes in a different sonic direction from the LP", which feels "all over the place" and like the "same sort of weird Frankenstein of an album" that the band's debut United is.[5] The version of "Identical" released in 2020 has a duration of 3:13, while the listed length of the Alpha Zulu version is 5:02.
Artwork and title
Pascal Teixeira's cover art for Alpha Zulu and accompanying singles is an edited portion of the 1478 painting Madonna col Bambino mediante otto angeli by Sandro Botticelli.[6] The inspiration for the title came from Mars hearing "alpha zulu" over an airplane radio during a bout of turbulence.[7] The words come from the ICAO alphabet, also known as the NATO phonetic alphabet; Alpha would phonetically be used for the letter A, and Zulu for the letter Z.
Critical reception
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 84/100[8] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| The Independent |  [9] |
| NME |  [10] |
| Paste | 7.3/10[11] |
| Slant Magazine |  [12] |
On Metacritic, Alpha Zulu received a score of 84 out of 100 based on five critics' reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[8] Helen Brown of The Independent felt that the album "is packed with an impressive amount of energy and ideas for a band celebrating their 25th anniversary" and "all 10 tracks are stacked with hooks, making it as good as their 2009 breakthrough album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix".[9] Writing for NME, Thomas Smith called it an album "that further confirms their place as one of the scene's most consistently enjoyable bands" with "nods to the razor-sharp pop hits from their beginnings ('If I Ever Feel Better'), to the indie-disco bangers that preceded their era of early '10s indie" like "1901" and "Lisztomania".[10]
Track listing
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Alpha Zulu" | 2:52 |
| 2. | "Tonight" (featuring Ezra Koenig) | 4:06 |
| 3. | "The Only One" | 3:29 |
| 4. | "After Midnight" | 3:11 |
| 5. | "Winter Solstice" | 3:56 |
| 6. | "Season 2" | 2:47 |
| 7. | "Artefact" | 3:24 |
| 8. | "All Eyes on Me" | 3:04 |
| 9. | "My Elixir" | 3:32 |
| 10. | "Identical" | 5:02 |
| Total length: | 35:23 | |
References
- ^ a b Bloom, Madison (7 September 2022). "Phoenix Announce New Album Alpha Zulu, Share New Song With Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig". Pitchfork. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
- ^ Daly, Rhian (7 September 2022). "Phoenix announce new album 'Alpha Zulu' and share Ezra Koenig duet 'Tonight'". NME. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
- ^ Anderson, Carys (7 September 2022). "Phoenix Announce New Album Alpha Zulu, Share "Tonight" Featuring Ezra Koenig: Stream". Consequence. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
- ^ Russell, Scott (7 September 2022). "Phoenix Announce New Album Alpha Zulu, Duet with Ezra Koenig on 'Tonight'". Paste. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
- ^ Tan, Emily (19 August 2020). "Phoenix Return With 'Identical,' Discuss New Album Details". Spin. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
- ^ ""Madonna and Child with Eight Angels"". WahooArt (in Italian). Retrieved 15 September 2022.
- ^ Farrell, Margaret (1 June 2022). "Phoenix Are Crying to the Heavens on "Alpha Zulu," Their First New Track in Two Years". Flood Magazine. Retrieved 10 September 2022.
- ^ a b "Alpha Zulu by Phoenix Reviews and Tracks". Metacritic. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
- ^ a b Brown, Helen (3 November 2022). "Phoenix review, Alpha Zulu: Zut alors, it's good!". The Independent. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
- ^ a b Smith, Thomas (3 November 2022). "Phoenix – 'Alpha Zulu' review: indie-pop's modern masters exhibit flair and panache". NME. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
- ^ Sharples, Grant (31 October 2022). "Phoenix's Alpha Zulu Is Equal Parts Jarring and Rapturous". Paste. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
- ^ Lyons-Burt, Charles (31 October 2022). "Phoenix 'Alpha Zulu' Review: Deceptively Simple, Exceedingly Fluid Pop-Rock". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
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