Bankrupt!

Writing and composition

On 5 April 2011, Phoenix posted a blog update on their website revealing CCTV stills of a studio where the band was working. The band stated in interviews that the album would be a departure from the pop sounds of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (2009), and they were trying to create something more experimental. The band also said that their work on the soundtrack for Sofia Coppola's 2010 film Somewhere provided inspiration for the creation of the album. Bankrupt! has been described as an indie pop album, also featuring synth-pop and new wave throughout.

Promotion

Glassnote head Daniel Glass announced at a Spotify event on 6 December 2012 that the band had finished recording their new album, and it was scheduled for an April 2013 release. On 16 January 2013, the album's title was revealed to be Bankrupt! and a teaser was released on Phoenix's official website.

Phoenix played various major music festivals across the world in support of the album. Dates included headlining spots at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Primavera Sound. They also played large European festivals such as Rock Werchter, Rock am Ring and Rock im Park and Glastonbury Festival.

The album's lead single, "Entertainment", premiered on Zane Lowe's show on BBC Radio 1 on 18 February 2013, and was released digitally the following day.

The second single, "Trying to Be Cool", was initially promoted via Soundcloud, with several remixes available for download. On 2 July 2013 a video for the song was released, with a live performance of "Trying to Be Cool" and "Drakkar Noir" in a studio in New York City. The video was directed by Spanish collective "Canada" and produced by Phoenix in conjunction with Intel and Vice's 'The Creators Project'. "S.O.S. in Bel Air" impacted alternative radio in the United States as the third and final single from Bankrupt! on 11 November 2013.

Critical reception

Bankrupt! received mostly positive ratings from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to ratings and reviews from mainstream critics, the album received a metascore of 71, based on 41 reviews.

At Consequence of Sound, Steven Arroyo stated that Bankrupt! "could end up the most anti-pop pop album of the year" and although it has its confusing "fake-out" moments, "if the choice was between confusing or boring and safe, Phoenix made the right call." Drowned in Sound's Krystina Nellis rated the album a 9 out of 10, and alluded to how the album may be a "shock to the system at first", but called the process of listening to the album a "thrilling ride nonetheless". Simon Price music critic for The Independent called the album "derivative and is a near hybrid of Mew, the Postal Service, M83 and Empire of the Sun, but it's perfectly likeable without ever inspiring outright love." John Murphy of musicOMH wrote that the release was "well worth waiting for."

*NME'''s Matthew Horton rated the release a 7 out of 10, and noted that the album has been "buffed and polished", which will edge the band "towards the big time" because "their own flashy banks of synths and treated guitars sound meaty and perfect together". At Rolling Stone, Jon Dolan called Bankrupt! an album "rich with colorful, astral-planing synths, wry guitar shimmer, pillow-pump drums and Thomas Mars' blue-eyed vocal swoon". At Under the Radar, Dan Lucas noted how the album "will sound familiar to the band's fans from the off, but also represents the first significant aesthetic shift in their oeuvre", and the release "suggests that the rest of the world has a lot of catching up to do."

However, Philip Cosores of Paste rated the album a 6.0 out of 10, and found that the album "is easy to excuse, only to the effect that the more you excuse its deficiencies, the more you realize you are making excuses for it. Little is bad, but little is memorable or exciting or even interesting." At The Observer, Kitty Empire called the album a "classy, occasionally experimental set informed by breezy 80s sounds and vintage synths", which "it could have suited any number of other, cooler Coachellists in situ", and that it is "perhaps, a textbook post-success album." Kevin Korber of PopMatters rated the release a 6 out of 10, and evoked how the album is "ultimately underwhelming" because the effort does not have anything "going on", but the project "still works as a solid effort from a band getting used to being big. They’re just doing what they do." Slant Magazines Mark Collett found that the "lightness of touch, however, is otherwise missing", which makes the album "cool and pleasant, but easy to forget." At Mojo, Stephen Worthy said "the French quartet can be forgiven for not messing with the formula here."

Track listing

Personnel

Credits for Bankrupt! adapted from liner notes.

Phoenix

• Phoenix – production
• Thomas Mars – lead vocals
• Laurent Brancowitz – guitar, keyboards, percussion, programming, backing vocals, artwork concept
• Christian Mazzalai – guitar, keyboards, programming, backing vocals
• Deck D'Arcy – bass, keyboards, piano, percussion, programming, treatments, backing vocals

Additional personnel

• Michael Askill – mallets, percussion ("Entertainment", "Bankrupt!")
• Laurent d'Herbécourt – extra drums ("Trying to Be Cool"); engineering (all tracks)
• Maître Dierstein – technical engineering
• Maître Guy Foucher – technical engineering
• Ben Garvie – cover, illustration
• Thomas Hedlund – drums, sampled drums
• Robin Coudert – piano, keyboards
• George Jarvis – custom effects unit
• Andre Kelman – additional engineering
• Cameron Kennedy – mallets, percussion ("Entertainment", "Bankrupt!")
• Stéphane Kim – technical engineering
• Rebecca Lloyd-Jones – mallets, percussion ("Entertainment", "Bankrupt!")
• Mike Marsh – mastering
• Erik Mikalsen – custom effects unit
• Steph Mudford – mallets, percussion ("Entertainment", "Bankrupt!")
• Cedric Plancy – flute ("Bankrupt!")
• SM Associati – art direction
• Pascal Teixeira – artwork concept
• Julien Torb – additional engineering, mixing assistant
• Bastien Vandevelde – extra drums ("Bankrupt!"); additional engineering, mixing assistant (all tracks)
• Zdar – extra drums ("Bourgeois"); additional engineering, mixing, production (all tracks)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

References

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