Ten years into their career, the French band Phoenix had refined their pop skills by referencing two great composers. The sophistication of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is juxtaposed with the flash of Franz Liszt, joining classical elegance with Liszt’s Romantic-era groupies.
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Phoenix’s defining song, “Lisztomania,” was recorded with the precision of a classical pianist, using the metronomic perfection of modern electronic production. Though they began in Thomas Mars’ Versailles garage, this garage rock band is a more refined version of the noisy genre.
Mars’ character in “Lisztomania” sounds like the head voice of madness, where conflicting personalities mirror the contradiction of Mozart and Liszt. Phoenix uses Liszt’s flair to articulate rapid-fire thoughts on life, romance, and despair.
Phoenix debuted in 2000 with modern French disco a la Daft Punk and Air. They borrow from the French electronic dance duo Justice and The Strokes, but casting them off as chic copycats would be a mistake. “Lisztomania” has everything a pop song needs to be instantly satisfying, supported by refinements, like Liszt and Mozart.
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Treaty of Mars
“Lisztomania” is a mash-up of influences, according to singer Thomas Mars, who derived its name from the Hungarian composer. Lisztomania, or Liszt fever, described the hype around Franz Liszt’s stardom in his lifetime.
The band was surrounded by history growing up in Versailles, once the capital of the Kingdom of France before the French Revolution in 1789. Phoenix’s famous city oversaw the American Revolution’s end with the Treaty of Paris and the end of World War I with the Treaty of Versailles.
So sentimental, not sentimental, no
Romantic, not disgusting yet
Darling, I’m down and lonely
When with the fortunate, only
Not so sentimental but romantic, yes. Phoenix brings the 19th-century Romantic composer to the 21st-century indie cool kids, sounding like where The Strokes ended up on Angles. Mars advances indie-rock vocabulary by singing jugulate in the opening verse, turning the French Revolution’s violence into a party trick.
Do let, do let, do let, jugulate, do let, do
Let’s go slowly, discouraged
Distant from other interests
On your favorite weekend ending
This love’s for gentlemen only
Film Score
The band’s fourth album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, lifted Phoenix from the underground and won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 2010. Name-dropping Franz Liszt wasn’t the group’s only piece of sophistication; the album contains two brilliant compositions called “Love Like a Sunset” Pt. 1 and 2. It inspired Sofia Coppola’s 2010 film Somewhere, and the band created similar pieces of music for the score.
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is full of cinematic touches. Phoenix’s music is as visually striking as the pink album cover. And their music lives in a space of vividity and accessibility. Garage rock plus electronic music equals smart pop.
“Lisztomania” instantly gratifies, but more complex layers reveal themselves on subsequent listens. Liszt was a piano virtuoso. But he was also striking, with high cheekbones and hair that sent fans into a frenzy predating Beatlemania. Like the band introducing him to a new age, Liszt’s pop appeal was supported by exactness and talent.
Symphonic Poem
Liszt was famous for composing symphonic poems or tone poems that illustrated poems or novels within a musical movement. “Lisztomania” bounces like a book chapter, propelled by stiff-arm drumming, rolling guitars, and plunking child-like keys.
As the song builds, Mars repeats This is showtime. You can imagine Liszt during the height of his popularity, dazzling audiences with his “flying trapeze” piano technique, echoing Niccolò Paganini’s flair.
In the music video, Phoenix visits the Franz Liszt Museum in Budapest and the German villa of Richard Wagner, a close friend of Liszt.
We Are Not Impressed
French music critics weren’t impressed with “Lisztomania,” calling it just an album track. The critics forgot to tell future U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who danced to the song while studying at Boston University in a kind of homage to The Breakfast Club.
However, Sofia Coppola was impressed and married Mars in 2011. He’s collaborated as a producer and composer on several of Coppola’s soundtracks, including The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation. Coppola’s films are known for their soundtracks, which she meticulously curates. They’re like mixtapes—great standalone albums, regardless whether you’ve watched the films. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix sounds like a Coppola soundtrack without the film, like a Liszt-inspired symphonic poem.
Many bands in the 2000s revived garage rock and new wave. But Phoenix has the compositional chops and literate sensibility to outlive another music industry fad. Like a great film, their music continues to age well. It echoes the beauty and infectiousness of Franz Liszt with the buzzing fire of revolutionary France.
Photo by Jason Koerner/Getty Images for Audacy
