In case you needed an excuse to stare at Rihanna for three and a half minutes straight, I present you the new Kanye West video to what’s easily one of the best songs off of his latest album 808’s & Heartbreak. In the whole post-Chris Brown drama scheme of things, I suppose the video makes some sense, but at the same time it still feels like a lengthy (retro) Victoria’s Secret commercial of sorts. Regardless, here’s the video, enjoy!
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is a logical next step for the band who made critics take them seriously after 2006’s It’s Never Been Like That.
Release Date: May 26, 2009
Record Label: Loyaute/Glassnote
Rating: 95
After a monumental critical breakthrough with It’s Never Been Like That, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that Pheonix’s follow up is one of the more anticipated releases this year. With that in mind, the fact that the French rock band still impresses with this album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is all the more noteworthy. Opening with three radio-ready pop songs, “Lisztomania” and “1901″ are particularly two of the catchiest songs Phoenix has written. The chill moments on the album (“Fences”, “Rome”, “Countdown”) definitely have a United vibe, albeit a subtle one, while the musical maturation is such that deceivingly simple songs such as “Girlfriend” don’t feel like such a stretch to be an instant summer classic. Similarly, the weighty seven and a half minute opus “Love Like a Sunset,” which falls in the heart of the album, is never burdened by its ambitions. Instead, the moody-then-bittersweet piece manages to summarize the album’s vibe while providing enough of a preview for the second half to warrant a thorough listen.
Through and through, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is a highly enjoyable album. It doesn’t grab attention or scream immediacy the way some of their singles have in the past. The band, however, had never released such a start-to-finish superb album until now– that’s more than a fair trade off.
Phoenix - “1901″
