Fans haven’t heard much from Phoenix over the past few years. The French group released their latest album, Ti Amo, in 2017, then toured behind it (including some special residencies), and it’s been mostly silence from the group since then. They’ve been busy working on new material, though, and today, they’ve shared some of it: Phoenix has released “Identical,” a new single and their first song since Ti Amo (aside from their 2018 Record Store Day release “Monologue,” which emerged from those album’s sessions). The song is part of the soundtrack for the upcoming movie On The Rocks, which stars Bill Murray and Rashida Jones.
The band’s Thomas Mars spoke to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe about the song and also teased their next album, saying:
“This is the time we’re putting one song and it’s our original song. So I think, yeah, and also I think this song will be on the album somehow. Even though the album now feels like it’s all over the place, we know that in the last few weeks it comes together, and it doesn’t look like anything now, but it will come together on it. It all makes sense.
It’s a good thing that it’s all over the place. As a musician, it’s the most exciting moment because everything’s all over the place. There’s no coherence and it’s a little bit like our first record, maybe; United, which had songs that would explore heavy metal and then country music. And then this is the same sort of weird Frankenstein of an album.”
Laurent Brancowitz added, “You know, there are processes that we produce a lot of material and we do not pre-judge. So we create things. And the very last moment is when we pick the good elements and we do something good with all this mess. So right now it’s just a big mess, but it’s the most exciting part for us. When we’re done… Oh, I know. The mess is good.”
Listen to “Identical” above.