I know what you’re thinking: oh, the audacity. Any blatant reference to the classical prodigy is a potential boomerang, thus it’s natural to infer that any band having the galls to do so is either way-in-over-their-heads deranged or has members who bear iron spines. So commences the trial of Phoenix’s fourth studio album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Enter the defence: 80’s funk beats, buzzing fuzz pedals, syncopated synth lines and Thomas Mars’ electrifying vocals. From the looks of it, Phoenix do seem to have a pretty solid case here.

There’s much to shake your ass to in Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Phoenix plays around with little but achieves great results. Pulsating bass lines and drums thumping with a bubblegum bounce serve as the two-pronged approach here, stringing lite synth-fuzz waves and melodic grooves in a swirling beat reminiscent of youth, dusk and summer. “Countdown (Sick for the Big Sun)” elucidates that feeling: Youth Group please take note, this is how it’s done.

In “Rome” and “Lasso”, the synth-disco and strings-funk shindig is in full force and the best thing is that they are never out of step and never overdone. This harmonious partnership cruises throughout the album, threading in tracks like “Lisztomania” and “1901”. Things change up a bit in “Love like a Sunset”, unveiling a different texture of the album; the first part of the song consists of layers upon layers of instrumentation whilst the latter half reduces to acoustic sweeps enveloping the sweet verses of ‘Acres. A visible illusion. Oh where it starts it ends. Love like a sunset.’

“Fences” has that Jamiroquai feel to it, played to perfection by Mars’ falsettos while “Girlfriend” has got legged dance hooks that won’t stop. They spin joyously in their own frenzy, as the bass lines trips all over the catchy drum beats without a care or thought in the world and it’s a hell of a party!

The French quartet never attempt to experiment with something they’re not comfortable with and that’s a comforting thing in Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix because the melodies stick to your head like Elmer’s glue while jacking your mind to a trance-like high. Apparently this isn’t the kind of record worthy of superlatives like ‘bold’ or ‘outstanding’. It’s hard not to like Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix’s candid electro-pop vibe. Unless you’re an imposing 500 year old fogey whose dictionary is missing the word fun that is! Its release in sun-kissed May certainly isn’t a seasonal coincidence as the album has all the dressings of an integral ingredient for summer mixtapes and party jams. Put simply, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is a winsome, modest little record that does exactly what the cover art suggests - landing big-ass bombs while having a blast in doing so.