Released: 2009
You didn’t have to convince anyone that French music had been fully revitalised by the time Phoenix’s fourth album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix arrived, as by now it had been a decade since Air had created the dreamscape that was Moon Safari, whilst a few years later Daft Punk had reinvented disco on Homework.
For those who weren’t there or who have pop’s disposition to short memories, the middle to end of this decade in indie pop terms had been characterised by literate, occasionally too clever by half bands like MGMT, The Shins and Vampire Weekend, many of which were talking about a fresh perspective without actually offering one.
Phoenix were at either a disadvantage or advantage, based on how far they could disassociate themselves from that by sheer geography and Fences offered listeners both Gallic cool and sophisticated funk, with singer Thomas Mars effortlessly cloud-topping. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart itself would go on to sell nearly a million copies in America, proving that even two cultures so frequently at odds could both revel in la bonne musique when they heard it.
The Voice Of Unreason 