Glassnote

With its Chinese-style cover illustration of a peach, pentatonic synth riffs and knowing nods to Gang of Four – such as titling opening track “Entertainment,” after the first/best album by the funky British postpunk group that copped its moniker from a quartet of Chinese Communist Party officials – you might suspect that Phoenix was working some heavy conceptual juju on their fifth studio album. Bankrupt! is subtler than that, however, and most of its pleasures are found in the constantly shifting keyboard patches and persuasive dancefloor beats that underlie singer Thomas Mars’ seemingly endless string of lyrical non sequiturs. Lacking the thrilling hooks of 2009’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Bankrupt! cuts through the fog with a confident prow of epic perkiness. Tracks such as “S.O.S. in Bel Air,” “Trying to Be Cool,” “Bourgeois” and “The Real Thing,” one imagines, both accept and mock the Hollywood milieu that Mars inhabits with wife Sofia Coppola. And if you’re looking for a highlight, you’ll find it in the baroque minimalism of the French quartet’s seven-minute title track.