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Phantom Planet - Raise the Dead
(2008)

 Reporting by Keyan Reid

I gotta tell you Thugs. I really do not want to do this review. I mean, I really, REALLY don’t want to.

Why, you ask?

Maybe that’s none of your business, jerk. But since the matter is on the table and I don’t really have much else to talk about, we’ll go ahead and get into it. I don’t want to write this review because, quite simply, once this review is done, I’ll have to set this album aside so I can listen to whatever’s next up.

And I don’t want to. This album is off the freakin’ hook. For real. The review I did prior to this one was for Santogold, and I had written about how I kept turning off whatever else I was listening to in order to bust out Santogold again. However, after cracking into Raise The Dead, the newest album from Phantom Planet, all thoughts about Santogold were purged from my immediate memory. Phantom Planet is dominating my scene right now. I’m totally loving this album.

Phantom Planet pulls out all the stops here. Right from the start, with the titular “Raise the Dead”, the album comes out swinging and never lets up. Alex Greenwald releases a torrent of vocals, positively charged with energy that he channels up and up throughout the track. I repeatedly found myself driving home with this on, and I would pound on my steering wheel enthusiastically as the track built up every time.

The band came to rock, and they waste no time in getting into it. Percussion provided by Jeff Conrad could easily make any fan of the band forget that Jason Schwartzman was ever a part of this group. The vocals invoke pop hooks with some clever lyrics and awesome backing work from the band. Everything sounds amazingly full and passionate, and it’s an album that has some real life in its sound just bursting from the seams.

If I’m not mistaken, “Do the Panic”, is a single. If so, and you’ve heard that one, just know that the rest of the album is just as solid. Each track is catchy, inventive, and banging on all cylinders. The only dipping point for me was the song “Quarantine”, and even then, I still like the song. I just found myself skipping it here and there since I was so eager to hear what came after it.

“Too Much, Too Often” is the perfect track to sum up Raise the Dead I think. It’s bright, vibrant, and playful, bounding about with a high energy jam that threatens to rock one’s socks off, if one is not adequately prepared for such sock-rockage. You’ve been warned.

Now stop reading and go swoop on this one. It’s a goddamn gem. Then cry for me, realizing that I’ve had to step away from this awesome album now that this review is done.

Cry harder. I expect better, damnit.

Keyan Reid
Professional Hero
JRE Thug Division, Core Elite

Rating:

• Raise the Dead
• Do The Panic
• Ship Lost at Sea
• Too Much Too Often
• I Don't Mind