It’s been a few years since Phoenix’s 2017 LP, Te Amo. But the French band is back with “Identical.”
Bringing the synths and high energy, “Identical” will also appear on the soundtrack to the new Sofia Coppola film, On the Rocks, starring Bill Murray, Rashida Jones and Marlon Wayans.
Aside from “Identical,” which you can also hear featured in the movie trailer below, Phoenix also wrote the score and put together the soundtrack — making it the band’s fifth collaboration with Coppola. “Too Young,” off their 2000 debut LP, United, appeared in her 2003 movie Lost in Translation, kicking off their creative partnership.
While “Identical” is meant for a film, singer Thomas Mars said that the track will likely be on their upcoming new album — despite the fact that it goes in a different sonic direction from the LP.
“This is the time we’re putting one song and it’s our original song,” Mars told Zane Lowe at Apple Music. “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.”
Mars welcomes how the new record feels “all over the place” and said, ” 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 echoes Mars’ sentiments, pointing out that Phoenix aims “not to pre-judge.”
“You know, there are processes that we produce a lot of material and we do not pre-judge,” the band’s guitarist and keyboardist told Lowe. “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 Phoenix’s “Identical” and see the trailer for On the Rocks starring Bill Murray, Rashida Jones, and Marlon Wayans, below.
