Track Listing

1. School's Rules
2. Too Young
3. Honeymoon
4. If I Ever Feel Better
5. Partytime
6. On Fire
7. Embuscade
8. Summerdays
9. Funky Square Dance
10. Definitive Breaks

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29463 in Music
• Released on: 2000-06-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
"Heatwave", the funk-flavoured track on 1999's Source Rocks compilation, suggested Phoenix were another product of the French filtered disco wave. On the basis of United, it was a red herring because the album is suffused with breezy, retro-flavoured rock numbers. One of the band, keyboard player and guitarist Branco, was in Darlin--the indie act that spawned Daft Punk--but if they went one way, he surely went the other. United is reminiscent of West Coast American FM pop rock, with nods to everyone from Crosby Stills Nash and Young to "Jump"-era Van Halen. The thrilling "Too Young" and swooning "On Fire" are rattling good pop songs that fall on the right side of affectionate pastiche. "Summertime" is an enthusiastic power pop thrash, "Embuscade" a Steely Dan-styled jazz rock instrumental and "Summerdays" a carefree country-tinged trip to the beach. Refreshing, intelligent and successful French rock--now that is a first. --Mike Pattenden

CD Description
The 2000 debut from the French band Phoenix gleefully combines the electronic-laced melodicism of their fellow countrymen Air with the sensibilities of 1980s UK pop (in the mode of China Crisis and Prefab Sprout) and imbues the results with a dance-floor sensibility. Toss in a bit of classic '70s stadium rock and tongue-in-cheek country, and you have UNITED, a Frankenstein's monster of a record, guaranteed to have something to please nearly any ear.
Vocalist Thomas Mars'sfey, thickly accented singing lends an appealing vulnerability that is most evident on the record's most infectious track, the glass-smooth "Too Young" (which was handpicked by Sofia Coppola for inclusion in her 2003 film, LOST IN TRANSLATION). "If I Ever Feel Better" recalls an edgier version of the slick funk-pop of Level 42, while "Party Time", is a two-minute would-be punk rave-up. The riskiest track, the nine-minute "Funky Squaredance", opens with a loping vocoder-treated verse, only to morph into a dance number punctuated by heavy-metal guitar breaks. Capped off by cover art mimicking ahard-rock LP circa 1984, UNITED makes musical schizophreniaa true asset.

Customer Reviews

Genius
What can I say? What an album! I'm not even going to bother avoiding cliches. This album is the ultimate life-confirming, good feeling album. There is nothing comparable to this band. It's the best kind of uplifting. It isn't shove it in your face hapiness a good feeling just eminates from every song. "If i ever feel better" has saved my life on several occasions. Lead singer Thomas Mars is a genius lyric crafter especially considering english isn't his first language. There isn't a bad song on this album. Every song is in a genre of its own but always with a keen sense of a beautiful melody and never at the cost of genius lyrics. If you are not a genre-facist this album is for you. If you are anybody this album is for you! BUY IT!

another cd worth taking a chance on
another cd that i bought (albeit thru another site that stocked it earlier) after hearing half of a track on T4 on a hung-over sunday morning. very difficult to describe as this is as eclectic as anything i've ever heard. the track i'd heard "too young" is (i cringe at my first ever use of this word) funky and summery and very melodic. this is preceded by what can only be described as an extended metal riff (school's rules)band followed by lilting, reggae-ish "honeymoon" and the bouncy "if i ever feel better". you know by now that no british or american band could be this unselfconscious, indeed after one listen i wondered whether this could possiby be an album that i could have enjoyed listening to. whether its a sign that i'm getting old or this group really does write songs that should fail but don't, i'm not sure. the album veers from lovely delicate arrangements to brash guitar driven songs that sound more eighties than the eighties ever did ("party time") "On Fire" is a fantastic seventies american pastiche that makes your mouth curl up at the edges and the rest of the album takes in more influences than the soace i've got left. unmistakeably european in flavour, this is an album that may well become a favourite for this summer and beyond, if you can open your mind and listen to it more than once. i very nearly relegated it to the bottom of the stack, but the tunes worked their way in and stayed there. give it a go and tell me what you think.

Interesting mix
I bought this because i was sick and tired of seeing the name Phoenix in the 'Thank you's in the sleeve notes of some of my favourite artists - Air, Daft Punk, Alex Gopher, Ettiene de Crecy. If you're thinking of doing the same, think again. This is a far cry from the styles of those artists, but that isn't to say its bad - there are some fantastic tracks on here ('Too Young' and 'If I Ever Feel Better' especially) but its quite confusing and there is no consistent style, which makes the album sometimes annoying to listen to in its entirety. Despite this, its worth getting just for its highlights which are superb, just don't expect what I did!