Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Encyclopedia
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is the fourth studio album
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 album by the French alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 band Phoenix
Phoenix (band)
Phoenix is a Grammy Award winning French indie rock band from Versailles, founded by Thomas Mars, Deck d'Arcy, Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Brancowitz.-Formation and early years:...

. The album was released internationally by V2 Records on 25 May 2009.
While the band's previous work enjoyed a moderate underground following, the release of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix drew the attention of a more mainstream audience. In the US, Phoenix began a promotional tour including performances on several late night talk shows. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix continued to gain momentum with the increased exposure of the tour. The polished stylings of the unique Phoenix sound spilled over into in movie trailers, television credits and commercials. The album had the critics attention and despite a slow climb in alternative music charts, eventually reached the top 10 for the year. "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" earned the band a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album
Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album
The Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums in the alternative rock genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...

 at the 52nd Grammy Awards
52nd Grammy Awards
The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards took place on January 31, 2010, at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Neil Young was honored as the 2010 MusiCares Person of the Year on January 29, two days prior to the Grammy telecast. Only ten of the 109 awards were received during the broadcast...

 held on 31 January 2010.

Background

The album credits Phoenix band members Thomas Mars on vocals, Deck D'Arcy on bass, and Laurent Brancowitz
Laurent Brancowitz
Laurent Brancowitz is a musician best known for being one of the guitarists from the French alternative rock band Phoenix.- Darlin' :...

 and Christian Mazzalai on guitar, as well as the collaboration of Phillipe Zdar Cerboneschi, who mixed the album and played drums on the song "Fences". Phoenix produced 10 songs for release on the album in the U.S. and Canada under the Glassnote label.

Phoenix officially became a band in 1997 after adding the talents of guitarist Laurent Brancowitz to the lineup. Childhood friends Thomas Mars, Deck D'Arcy and Christian Mazzalai launched their career together playing out of Mars’ garage. That same year the band released 500 copies of an album EP on their own label “GhettoBlaster”.

Three years later the band released its first full studio album entitled “United”. The album is said to get its music influences from the band “Air” who are close friends with Phoenix. The album received mixed reviews. The follow-up sophomore release “Alphabetical
Alphabetical (album)
Alphabetical is the second album by the French rock band Phoenix, released in 2004. The album has sold 30,000 copies in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan...

”(2004) was received with more enthusiasm than the previous album and did make its way on to the charts. In 2005 the band released a live album entitled “Live! Thirty Days Ago
Live! Thirty Days Ago
-Phoenix on stage:*Deck D'Arcy - Bass & Backing Vocals*Laurent Brancowitz - Guitar, Keyboards & Backing Vocals*Thomas Mars - Lead Vocals*Christian Mazzalai - Guitar & Backing Vocals*Chassol - Keyboards*Lawrence Clais - Drums & Backing Vocals-External links:*...

” before wrapping up their tour for “Alphabetical”. That same summer the band started to record their next album in Berlin. “Its Never Been Like That” was released the following year in 2006, Phoenix's third studio album. The album has been met with generally positive reviews.

2009 and the release of “Wolfgang Amadeus” proved to be a triumphant year for Phoenix. The album is renowned for its effortless flow from beginning to end. Former pro-basketball player turned music critic, Paul Shirley, framed the album's composition in this light, "Many albums are simply collections of songs. "W.A.P." is different. There is a method behind its arrangement. There are ebbs in the energy, but they're buttressed by pick-ups in tempo. There are emotional moments, but they're given time to breathe. The songs are built—at least to my ear—to go together." Indeed, critical acclaim would suggest that the transitions between both songs and moods in this album flow smoothly and listen well.

The album name plays off of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

, using his first and middle name and replacing his last with the band's name "Phoenix." Of the name, Phoenix, Thomas Mars says, “The album title is almost like a childish thing, like you’re unleashing a child into the museum and he draws a mustache on the Mona Lisa or something ... It’s kind of bratty, especially with me, my mom is German and Mozart is Austrian and in Germany it’s like messing with the Pope or something.”.

Writing and Composition

Co-producer Philippe Zdar hosted the recording of the album from his in home studio in Paris. During the production of the album, the band recorded video of the sessions, which they have released as mini documentaries of their journey to create Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. The videos are available on the band's website.

Throughout the process, lead singer Thomas Mars, noted the use of Oblique Strategies
Oblique Strategies
Oblique Strategies is a set of published cards created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt first published in 1975, and is now in its fifth, open ended, edition...

 flash cards to promote his creative thinking during the development of the album.

In his review, Andrew Winistorfer, delivers a vivid description of the opening tracks, "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix opens with two monster singles, “Lisztomania,” a glittery anthem that manufactures a sense that you’re in for greatness and an immense motion that gets more urgent as the song progresses, and “1901,” a synth-washed heartfelt ode from frontman Thomas Mars about falling in love."

"Lisztomania
Lisztomania (song)
Lisztomania is a song by the French band Phoenix from their 4th album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. It is their 2nd single off this album, though a music video of this song came before "1901". It peaked at #11 on the "Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles" in the US and as well peaked at #56 in Belgium...

" refers to the term Lisztomania, a word coined by the German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 romantic writer Heinrich Heine
Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...

 to describe the massive public response to Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...

's virtuosic piano performances.

Promotion and Release

It was announced in early 2009 that the band would be releasing an album. The single “1901" was released February 29, 2009. To promote the album Phoenix performed on Saturday Night Live on April 4, 2009. The band performed “1901” and “Lisztomania”.

In order to get fans interested in the album the band released an EP version of the album for Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix that was only available through iTunes. The EP featured both songs that were performed on SNL and two others; “Love Like a Sunset pt 1 & 2”. On May 25, 2009 the album was released on V2 records in conjunction with Loyauté the bands own record label worldwide and on Glassnote in the United States of America.

From May 12, 2009, the album was available to download from the iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...

 for customers in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 and from Amazon MP3
Amazon MP3
Amazon MP3 is an online music store owned and operated by Amazon.com. Launched in public beta on September 25, 2007, in January 2008 it became the first music store to sell music without digital rights management from the four major music labels , as well as many independents...

.

On 7 August 2009, Phoenix performed a live version of "Lisztomania" on Australian youth radio network Triple J
Triple J
triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...

 in a program called "Like a Version".

Reception

In Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, the album debuted at #13. It debuted on the U.S. Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

 albums chart at #37 and remained in the Top 100 for several weeks due to the alternative radio success of the album's second single "1901."

The album won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album
Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album
The Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums in the alternative rock genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...

 on January 31, 2010.

Year-end list entries
  • 5th – Time
    Time (magazine)
    Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

    s Top 10 Albums of 2009
  • 3rd – Rolling Stone
    Rolling Stone
    Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

    : The 25 Best Albums of 2009
  • 8th – Pitchfork Media
    Pitchfork Media
    Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...

    s Top 50 Albums of 2009
  • 1st - The A.V. Club
    The A.V. Club
    The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...

    : The top 25 albums of 2009
  • 1st - Drowned in Sound
    Drowned in Sound
    DrownedinSound.com or DiS is a UK based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway . The site is an editorially independent music website.-History:...

    s Top 50 Albums of 2009
  • 2nd - Rhapsody (online music service)
    Rhapsody (online music service)
    Rhapsody is an online music store subscription service, launched in December 2001, and available in the United States only. On April 6, 2010, Rhapsody officially declared its independence from RealNetworks. Downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by Helix, Rhapsody's version...

    : "The 25 Best Albums of 2009"
  • 3rd - Spin (magazine)
    Spin (magazine)
    Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...

    s The 40 Best Albums of 2009

Lisztomania & 1901 were both listed on Triple J's Hottest 100 for 2009
Triple J Hottest 100, 2009
The 2009 Triple J Hottest 100 was announced on Australia Day 26 January 2010. It is the seventeenth countdown of the most popular songs of the year, as chosen by the listeners of Australian radio station Triple J....

, and received #4 and #13 respectively.

Track listing

Weekly charts

Chart (2009–10) Peak
position
Australian Albums Chart
ARIA Charts
The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...

13
Austrian Albums Chart 66
Belgian Albums Chart
Ultratop 50
Ultratop 50 singles, often just Ultratop 50, is the weekly chart of fifty best-selling singles in Flanders, Belgium, and is produced and published by the Ultratop organization. The chart has existed since March 31, 1995...

 (Flanders)
27
Belgian Albums Chart
Ultratop 50
Ultratop 50 singles, often just Ultratop 50, is the weekly chart of fifty best-selling singles in Flanders, Belgium, and is produced and published by the Ultratop organization. The chart has existed since March 31, 1995...

 (Wallonia)
22
Canadian Albums Chart
Canadian Albums Chart
The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS...

19
European Top 100 Albums
European Top 100 Albums
The European Top 100 Albums chart is the European adaptation of the Billboard 200 albums chart. It was created in March 1984.The European Top 100 Albums, commonly referred to as Eurochart Top 100 Albums shows the sales of an act in 19 European countries based on IFPI data.The European Top 100...

26
French Albums Chart
Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique
The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry...

14
German Albums Chart
Media Control Charts
The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie...

18
Irish Albums Chart
Irish Albums Chart
The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically...

64
Norwegian Albums Chart
VG-lista
VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by...

14
Swedish Albums Chart
Sverigetopplistan
Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association ....

34
Swiss Albums Chart
Swiss Music Charts
The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75...

23
UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...

54
US Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

37
US Alternative Albums 4
US Heatseekers Albums
Top Heatseekers
Top Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical...

7
US Independent Albums
Independent Albums
The Billboard Independent Albums is a chart of the highest-selling independent music albums and extended plays in the United States, compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is used to list artists who are not signed to major labels...

2
US Rock Albums 5


Certifications

Country Certification
Australia
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...

Gold
Canada
Music Canada
Music Canada was a Canadian music television miniseries which aired approximately monthly on CBC Television from 1966 to 1967.-Premise:This series featured various special productions of music and dance, from classical to modern styles.-Scheduling:...

Gold
United States
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...

Gold

Year-end charts

Chart (2009) Position
French Albums Chart 141
US Billboard 200 177
Chart (2010) Position
US Billboard 200 96
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