Phantogram Album Review: “Voices”

Like most so-called “Electropop” acts that are out there, Phantogram is pretty much a staple to the genre. With their release of “Eyelid Movies” back in 2010, these guys stuck their toes in the water and really wowed us with a splash of interesting sonic experiments and songs that combine soul and sadness and beauty and all of that jazz. Now with their sophomore album coming out this year, “Voices” should be that proper follow-up that we’ve been expecting. And… yeah, it pretty much delivers, though it does fall flat a couple of times, but hey, what album doesn’t?

The thing about “Voices” is that you can’t really tell if there is some new found production value, but this is one of the examples that you really have to look at the songwriting capabilities to see if there’s something worthwhile to the record other than Single Power. For those of you who don’t know, “Single Power” is when the album has the potential to push out those radio-friendly nuisances that ring in our ears over and over and over again. “Fall in Love” seems to be the only single that’s up, so that could be a good thing or just as easily terrible. If that’s the only song to be put up on the radio, then does that mean the rest of the songs are hidden gems or garbage?

Anyway, from the get go, “Nothing But Trouble” grips you with the pulse-pounding drums and the burst of what seems like a bitcrushed horn section just glitching across the whole track. Sarah Barthel’s voice is the perfect contrast to the chaos around her and the sugary softness of it offers up something in likability, but it will wane in other tracks. “Black Out Days” gives you the same thing with the buzzing synths following Barthel’s wails of “OH WAY AY YA OH WAY AY YA”. “Never Going Home” is a cool break in between craziness with Josh Carter’s vocals being a little bit less prominent. The one thing about this album that I’m not too big of a fan of is Josh Carter’s vocals which were soulful and somber in tracks like “You Are the Ocean and I’m Good” or “Turn It Off” which were my absolute favorite tracks off of “Eyelid Movies” and this time he’s kind of just pushed to the side to sing repetitive hooks.

Sadly, the 2nd half of the album is where things start to go a bit downhill. “Howling at the Moon”, although it starts like a Flying Lotus track just derails with the off-beat vocals. I’d rather have that as an instrumental. Barthel’s vocals don’t go well with the chaos because she’s trying to make it even more chaotic and her voice doesn’t fit it. Get someone like Alice Glass from Crystal Castles if you would want to do something like that. “Bad Dreams” has the same problem, a great, intriguing instrumental but pinpoint the moment where Barthel has some trouble hitting the high notes. Something that should be soulful just plummets to something screechy. “Bill Murray” sounds like a more tolerable Lana Del Ray song, and if anyone, ANYONE knows me, I don’t like her. The redeeming factor is that I can hear Barthel summoning her inner Annie Clark for the choral additions and reverberated vocals. “I Don’t Blame You” is the somewhat saving grace. The production has enough contrast that it pulls you in, and Carter’s singing is a lot more soulful than in “Never Going Home”. It sounds like an unholy union of Passion Pit and Bloc Party.

Final Verdict for this album: The production and the instrumentals are fantastic with each and every noise is in it’s right place and keeping you hooked, but the songs can get tiresome after a while with repetition or with just lackluster lyrics and forgettable hooks. If you’re going to choose an album to listen to, check out “Eyelid Movies” instead, but this does sound good, it’s solid.