Alphabetical

Editors’ Notes It may have been made in the wake of an international breakthrough (namely, the ripple effect of “Too Young” lighting up 2003’s Lost In Translation) but Phoenix’s follow-up largely trades sprightly garage rock for something softer, subtler, and smoother. It’s a bold attempt to recreate the ‘80s pop that first entranced these Versailles schoolfriends (see the snapping yacht-ready groove of “Run, Run, Run”). A concise, deceptively complex gamble that pays off handsomely.