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Jul 16, 2013The songs on Bankrupt! all still feature scintillating synths, gorgeous melodies and soaring moments of transcendent skill but with more of a flair for the dynamic tense of music.
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May 21, 2013Phoenix has somehow managed to follow a universally acclaimed breakout record with one that not only avoids falling flat, but succeeds at creating and sustaining a subtly different atmosphere.
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Apr 30, 2013The resulting album blurs the lines between simple and sophisticated more effectively than Phoenix ever have before.
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Apr 25, 2013If Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix was the band hitting its stride, then it’s likely that Bankrupt! is the music playing during its medal ceremony. It’s not a radical step forward but it’s not a regression either.
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Apr 25, 2013Bankrupt! doesn’t inspire the covetousness of their early material, but rather it takes its natural place as an album to be consumed en masse by Phoenix’s hefty fan base.
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Apr 24, 2013Best of all is "S.O.S. in Bel Air," a deceptively giddy song about the loneliness of guest-list-only parties. "Alone, alone, alone!" Mars sighs. And you can just imagine a stadium full of kids shouting the line back to him, alone together.
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Apr 24, 2013They are heavier, and denser, and overwhelmingly less instant than their predecessors, as cloaked and finely adorned in all manner of bright, shiny synths as they are, at times almost crushed under the weight of an ambitiously flamboyant band. But these are still Phoenix songs, and by the end of a dozen listens they are as urgent as ever.
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Apr 23, 2013The album feels like a predictable progression, too logical an evolution.
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Apr 23, 2013As on 2009’s “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix,” the elite pedigree of these bright, well-mannered Frenchmen shows in their impressive aural plumage.
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Apr 23, 2013It’s less catchy than Wolfgang but also more creative and more satisfying.
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Apr 23, 2013Bankrupt! takes a slight turn instead of trying to replicate the sound of [Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix's] success. Unfortunately, that turn isn’t sharp enough.
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Apr 23, 2013By design, the new disc is less precisely crafted and more taken with posh, atmospheric grooves than hot power pop.
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Apr 22, 2013The wry premise behind "SOS in Bel Air"--distress signals emitting from privileged enclaves--could easily be applied to the album.
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Apr 22, 2013Bankrupt! suffers because it feels a little detached at times, like you can’t really tell where the band are in the big picture.
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Apr 22, 2013Though the instant hits are lacking, Bankrupt! is more cohesive than its best-selling predecessor.
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Apr 22, 2013Bankrupt! could end up the most anti-pop pop album of the year, which is exactly as confusing as the album sounds at times. But if the choice was between confusing or boring and safe, Phoenix made the right call.
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Apr 22, 2013Phoenix are no '80s copycats, but they occupy a sweet spot where influences and their own flashy banks of synths and treated guitars sound meaty and perfect together.
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Apr 22, 2013After the immediacy of Wolfgang, ‘Bankrupt!’ can seem like a sidestep. But delve deeper and this is an album reveals itself as a gem; one which mixes their crowd-pleasing hooks with an inventive shift in their sound.
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Apr 22, 2013The big thrills come so fast it almost feels like a blur, only equaled to the ravished excitement of making a score on a big night. It’ll knock you senseless, possibly bankrupt, until the urge comes back in full force.
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Apr 22, 2013Mars is too amiable a vocalist to express pure disillusionment, but he’s great at communicating discomfort. Bankrupt! doesn’t so much ruefully reflect upon Phoenix’s whirlwind, globe-trotting lifestyle as drop you right in the middle of it.
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Apr 22, 2013It's 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.
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Apr 22, 2013Bankrupt! isn't nearly as devoid of new ideas as its title suggests, but it doesn't feel like quite the leap forward Wolfgang was compared to what came before it. Not that it necessarily needs to be.
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Apr 18, 2013As ever, great fun.
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Apr 18, 2013An album full of off-kilter, strange pop songs, the sort that Phoenix do so well. It may have been four years in the making, but it’s certainly been well worth waiting for.
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Billboard.comApr 17, 2013["Entertainment,"] like almost all of the LP, there's heavy pop appeal for those with an ear for glistening production.
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Apr 16, 2013A thrilling ride nonetheless, unlike many others you’re likely to experience in 2013.
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Apr 15, 2013It’s little surprise that Bankrupt! is as meticulous, likeable, and danceable as its predecessors.
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UncutApr 1, 2013If Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix was the album that gave Phoenix everything they'd always strived for, Bankrupt! is the record that finds them trying to come to terms with it all. [May 2013, p.80]
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Apr 1, 2013It's all keyboards to the fore, their lightness lifting the album on to a wave of euphoria that gives Mars' vocals a dreamlike quality; this is less the Williamsburg house party of previous albums, instead a festival in a trance. [Mar-Apr 2013, p.94]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 97 out of 115
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Mixed: 15 out of 115
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Negative: 3 out of 115
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Apr 23, 2013
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Apr 23, 2013
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Oct 12, 2014