Phoenix - Alphabetical

A lot of horribly wretched things came from the 80's: New-wave haircuts, colored leather jackets, and the bastardization of the synth. Now, used in the right way synths can be really cool, but when they aren't they can totally ruin songs. Nothing rips the soul out of a song like the plastic manufactured blips and bleeps of an inappropriately placed synth. That being said Phoenix's Alphabetical sounds like it could have come right out of 1984. Right smack dab in the middle of that whole plague of synth rock. Seriously this CD, or tape as the case would have been, wouldn't be out of place with any of that garbage. Jump into your DeLorean, set the time-capacitor back a couple decades and throw it right in there next to Thomas Dolby. With a bit of luck no one would ever even noticed that music had evolved over the last 20 years. Even the lyrics sound retro. Like they'd fit perfectly into some "coming of age movie," which is a bullcrap description of what is essentially a teenage love story. This content makes the songs even worse. Singing about love, being with someone, regrets, yada yada yada... but with a backing band that has been completely castrated by protools and big budget production. This is the stuff that robots put on when they turn down the lights and want to feel sexy. However, it's not all that horrible. Like most 80's bands worth their weight in hair spray, there are the radio singles. Tracks "Everything is Everything" and "(You Can't Blame it on) Anybody" are fun... in that same sort of shameful way that Kylie Minogue is fun. That's right Kylie Minogue is fun. I'll say it. [www.wearephoenix.com]