Hello! 😊👋
Welcome to a new edition of the Best Music of All Time newsletter!
Today’s music pick marks the 15th anniversary of the effortlessly cool LP from the underrated French outfit.
Genre: Alternative, Synth Pop
Label: Glassnote
Release Date: May 26, 2009
Vibe: 😎
Based on the razor-sharp production and songwriting of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, you’d never know how scattershot the creation process was. Philippe Zdar, one half of Cassius and the man who mixed the group’s 2000 album, United, described the recording as weeks of “gluing and sticking stuff together” from various snippets each band member had laid down during individual flashes of inspiration. At one point, Zdar likens it to the famous story of the “Super Freak” sessions, where Rick James and company extracted eight bars out of a 46-minute jam session for use in the final track. But, while some records are saved during the editing and mixing process, others are taken to heights they wouldn’t have reached otherwise. Wolfgang gleefully falls into the latter category, combining top-notch studio alchemy with indie sensibilities that immediately made me nostalgic for a certain type of 2000s guitar-driven pop-rock that doesn’t really exist anymore.
The best-known tracks here remain among the record’s highlights. From the blissful whir of “1901” to the spiraling, off-kilter rhythms of “Lasso,” an immediacy pulls you in and invites replay after replay, perhaps to the detriment of some of the deeper cuts on the tracklist. Not that those should be ignored, however. “Love Like a Sunset, Pt. I” is truly cinematic, expanding the soundstage with grandiose synths as it uses sparse piano melodies to keep everything tethered to an emotional center. “Rome” transforms fuzzed-out guitar chords into a for-real-for-real psychedelic wall of sound, while “Countdown” makes a game attempt to outdo the other indie toe-tappers that got far more radio airplay exposure.
For a record that (as of this writing) is 15 years old, the production has aged incredibly well, as have the vocals from Thomas Mars. He and the rest of the group had perfected an effortless alt-rock cool that’s hard enough to describe. You only know it when you hear it.
👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈