Alphabetical

It may have been made in the wake of an international breakthrough (namely, the ripple effect of “Too Young” lighting up 2003’s <i>Lost In Translation</i>) but Phoenix’s follow-up largely trades sprightly garage rock for something softer, subtler and smoother. It’s a bold attempt to recreate the ‘80s pop that first entranced these Versailles schoolfriends (see the snapping yacht-ready groove of “Run, Run, Run”). A concise, deceptively complex gamble that pays off handsomely.