They've not been in a holding pattern waiting for something to happen, instead they have been living it up in art-house heaven and gate-crashing fashionista parties. In fact, rather like the cherished by the elite but mainstream media ignored likes of dEUS, The Longpigs, Mew, Les Savy Fav and so many more, it seemed Phoenix were the right band, making the right sounds, in the wrong city, at the wrong time and they're still waiting for the stars to perfectly align, so that they can (meritocratically) go stratospheric.Īll this time, "context-shmontext" is approximately what Phoenix have been thinking. Yet, try as it did, it was always the hit that never criss-crossed-over. Much-like that parallel-universe-hit 'The Rat' from The Walkman, 'Too Young' found itself sandwiched inbetween Yeah Yeah Yeahs and CSS in every sweat-pit and it popped up on various Bill Murray film soundtracks. This was back when it was exciting, back before the Hype Machine unleashed other knock-off but fairly virile strands of alt.pop/blogtronica, which inevitably led to the American Apparel-sponsored globalization of hipsterdom. It was nostalgia NOW, a homebrew of digitalized futurism, using melodious dollops of the past. Yep, as we now know all too well, anyone can sling all the gunk of those genres into a song and create a highly intoxicating three-to-five minutes. It, being a 'borrowing'-cum-importing of the innovative heady mush of disco, fuzzy electronica-meets-shoegaze tinglesome rushes and p-funk. Oh, of course, you could say that James Murphy and his trojan LCD Soundsystem did what Cliff Richard did to Elvis and got away with it in his homeland. Instead, walking around, oblivious to the fact the Noughties was their decade for the taking, they danced to 'Take Me Out' and took Sophia Coppolla out for some pomme-frites soaked in garlic mayo. Sadly, most were rather oblivious.Īs the unrelenting, floor-filling, intelligentsia-pop of the indie-dance crossover scene (Daft Punk, Soulwax, et al) galloped out of Europe, riding the white horses of hype and surfing the wake of proto-blog praise, it seemed Phoenix, for all their sophisticated suss, didn't get the memo to join the conga-line and follow their peers. Not long before The Strokes became the coolest cats in Gotham Rock City, a small clan of Parisians aloofly lobbed a glorious ball of pop entitled 'Too Young' at an unsuspecting world.