There are bands which borrow so much from other sounds and acts that their own sound is hard to distinguish. Phantom Planet is one of those bands, melding tones from White Stripes, early Radiohead, and Muse to formulate a sound that gets less and less compelling by the second.
With the band’s debut, Phantom Planet Is Missing, the group toyed with redoing Beach Boys songs with infusions of (surprise!) surf rock. The follow-up contained the single “California” and brought the group some mainstream popularity c/o The OC and Mischa Barton.
With their latest, Raise the Dead, Phantom Planet heads right into the sphere of dull pop-rock humdrum in search of instant gratification and big radio hits.
Early on in the recording process, the band’s contract with their record label expired and they signed a new deal with Fueled by Ramen, the home of such boisterous characters as Fall Out Boy, Paramore, and Panic at the Disco. Having played on TV shows like Sabrina the Teenage Witch and appeared on the soundtrack for Not Another Teen Movie, one can easily get a sense for the audience Phantom Planet aims for.
Raise the Dead takes Phantom Planet’s evident influences and stuffs them in a whizzer for less-than-tempting results. Songs impersonate their influences outright, like the crusty White Stripes drive of “Geronimo” or the Muse-inspired-mania of “Dropped.” Eventually the influences all crowd each other out and it feels like a compilation album from better bands as opposed to bright new material from this Tony Berg-produced “effort.”
If one is able to get past the omnipresent copycat sound of the majority of the songs, Raise the Dead does aim somewhat at being a amusing little summer album. The funky Dave Gahan-esque “Too Much Too Often” is a respectable tune, as is the unusually conventional but satisfying “Do the Panic.”
Overall, however, Phantom Planet’s latest simply lacks the originality and ingenuity required to stand alone as a good rock album. The compositions are simply too rented to have any lasting meaning.
Raise the Dead might make the deceased flinch a little, but it won’t be raising any corpses any time soon. Too morbid? Nah.
Article comments
1 - Chris
Personally, it seems like there is not enough of a focus on the songs that do not utilize the "normal" techniques of making a hit. Obviously, "Do The Panic" takes a simple melodic phrase and cements it into the listener by layering multiple instruments playing the same phrase. Things of this nature do appear quite often in the album. However, they are in good company. "Demon Daughters" has some severely meandering parts where there is a suspense that builds with every bar. Not to mention the creepy feeling of dissonance in the piece, which is not exactly what is appealing to the "audience" that they are supposed to be appealing to. Also, I believe that some of the lyrical ideas that the band presents are extremely interesting. The message embedded in the catchy "Too Much Too Often" is really a warning against a lifestyle that was previously cherished by the rock scene. Further, "Leader" seems to be hiding a little bit of a socio-political agenda by giving us the picture of a cult that we can easily identify in our own culture. And these are just a few observations that I had from looking into the album. Maybe the extreme dynamics of Raise the Dead can move a little more than what was originally predicted?
2 - Jordan Richardson
Chris, you may be on to something. To be honest, I haven't listened to this album since I reviewed it over three years ago. Glad you've found something to enjoy with it, though.
3 - Chris
Thank you Jordan, I wrote a short review of this album a while ago so I had some of these things cooking in my mind as I went through it a few times. How do you feel about some of the earlier albums? I'm just starting to work though The Guest again (found it cheap at a 2nd hand store) and I am hearing some things on there that seem like fairly new combinations for 2003. Then again, dissonance has come a long way since Stravinsky too.
4 - Jordan Richardson
Nice. I shall have to revisit The Guest and see if anything pops up. Maybe it's worth a review.