Review round up- Phoenix, Top 40, John Lewis Xmas ad

 

Phoenix have become one of my favourite bands over the last ten years. They have a knack of producing memorable songs that sit in your memory for some considerable time. `Alpha Zulu` released earlier this month is their seventh album and maintains their high standard for songs that initially sound featherlight, but which reveal many hidden qualities the more you listen to them. Recorded in Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, part of the Louvre Palace (where else!) the songs have a simplicity that the purest pop will provide yet lyrics whose meanings can be difficult to comprehend, and sometimes spill into more than one language. That’s all part of their appeal; they create a world of their own and its a beguiling one. It’s the music that could just as easily be used in the background of an advert as it could be the soundtrack to someone’s significant moments. They play with traditional song structures yet deliver these on a bed of synthetisers and keyboards, echoed vocals and mostly medium to fast paced timing. 

You’ll have a new favourite track each time you listen. For me it’s currently `Artefact` which is such as a musically joyous tune attached to lyrics that are somewhat different in tone; “I’m looking for an artefact, a piece of me that’s still intact” croons singer Thomas Mars (what a brilliant name for a singer!)

Led by a memorable bass riff, `Tonight` features guest singer Ezra Koenig from one of my other favourite bands Vampire Weekend and is as cool as you might expect such a collab to be.” I talk to myself and its quite surprising” they sing. ` Throughout there’s a subtle refection of the pandemic’s separation of families, friends, and culture though as with all things Phoenix it’s never overstated and luxuriates in such rich musical settings.  Winter Solstice` seems to address the pandemic most directly- “find me a narrative, something positive” Mars sings his voice as crystal clear as a production can be though the song also seems to be bout trying to fix a broken relationship.

You can take Phoenix as fun pop or something with deeper meanings and either way it is rewarding. At times you wonder how they manage to weave so many great songs from a template that hasn’t radically altered in twenty years, yet the beauty is in the detail. Like all their album this is a work to treasure. And from now all posts on this blog will be typed in the Louvre!

I remember as a kid sitting down to listen to the Top 40 rundown on a Sunday afternoon in the days when people would specifically pay attention to music and not just have it in on while doing something else. It was exciting and it mattered – it would be talked about in school afterwards and over the decades the charts maintained that importance. Whoever your favourite artist was you wanted their single or their album to get to number one. Even when I reached an age where there are more important things to occupy your thoughts, the charts still mattered, people still talked about them. I’m not sure when it stopped but it has now. Nobody seems to mention who is number one and to be honest the bar is much lower than it was in terms of sales or number of streams that will take you to the charts. Singes now seem to be like adverts for the artist or the tour, albums are still bought or streamed but in lower quantities.

This week there have been calls for the charts to be discontinued altogether. That would be a shame in some ways as they are supposed to reflect what is popular whatever the format music is released on. While it is true that music simply means less to younger people you surely still need a way to huge who is popular?  How would artists know what size venues to book for tours otherwise? I still think the lack of something akin to Top of the Pops has hastened the demise of the Top 40’s relevance. That was a showcase that millions of people saw and even today if you revived the series, it would still pull in a few million viewers and more than that might make the Top 40 charts more relevant again.

 

The odd thing about this year’s John Lewis Xmas advert is how it’s not really about Xmas or even John Lewis. `The Beginner` shows the efforts a foster Dad makes to master skateboarding in time for the arrival of his new charge. He doesn’t seem to consider that kids don’t really want their dad or foster dad skateboarding with them, that is just wrong! The film, well shot and all, is sound tracked by a slowed down version of the old Blink 182 song ‘All the Small Things`. Some songs are fine with different arrangements but not all! The combination jars though the fact that is for a good cause- John Lewis supporting foster care- makes you step back from being too critical. 

As a short film there’s nothing too bad about it (though a more suitable song would work better) but I can’t see though how it will entice anyone to decide they will shop at John Lewis this festive season rather than anywhere else. In trying to keep in line with the concept of an austerity Xmas, the ad is just too removed from the subject to make any impact, but I suppose it cost a lot less to make than their usual extravaganza. The thing is you can’t really celebrate Xmas tastefully; it's not that kind of thing. Whatever else it does the advert suggests that the days when the John Lewis Xmas ad was a vital part of our culture are now gone.