Genre: Punk Rock
Style: Pop Punk
Label Number: ICON112
© 2008 Icon MES
AllMusic Review by Alexey Eremenko
Phoenix
entered the Japanese Top Ten, but its first few minutes make one wonder
why, because the album opens up with some sturdy hardcore that's not
exactly prime charting material. However, things clear up pretty fast,
and the hardcore thing turns out to be a harmless mimicry for what is
actually an emo-punk album. Sounding like Fall Out Boy
became a safe ticket to success around 2008, but the downside is that
the shtick began wearing thin fast -- which explains the
non-conventional intro, as Zebrahead seem to be trying to make up for lack of originality on Phoenix
with versatility. The backbone of the album is still formed by simple
riffs played with punk speed, their energy serving as a counterbalance
to the melodies that are so sensitive they border on whiny. However, the
guitars are often genuinely heavy, reminding of Taking Back Sunday, and the punk vibe occasionally becomes too brutal to count as melodic. But only occasionally: melody is still a byword for Phoenix,
which clearly longs for pop appeal, for all its speed and quasi-metal
elements. There are a couple of more daring detours, too, such as the
reggae-tinged "Mike Dexter," or "The Juggernauts," which plunders the
vaults of arena rock of U2 by way of Angels & Airwaves
(making it a double plunder). All in all, the genre-hopping is handled
pretty well, and the album never becomes a disparate jumble of
influences, but the emo-rock used as glue, while energetic and not
overly sentimental, isn't exactly full of hooks, which probably explains
why this album, in the end, only enjoyed moderate chart success.
tags: zebrahead, phoenix, 2008, flac,
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