Alpha Zulu

Phoenix began recording the album during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 at the Musée des Arts décoratifs studio, which is located within the Louvre Palace in Paris. Laurent Brancowitz said the band "felt it would be a fantastic adventure to create something out of nothing" in an empty museum. Christian Mazzalai said that despite his initial concerns of making something while being surrounded by "too much beauty", the band "couldn't stop producing music" and that they wrote "almost all" of Alpha Zulu within the first 10 days. The album was inspired by Philippe Zdar of the band Cassius, who died in 2019. The song "Identical" was first released in 2020 on the soundtrack for Sofia Coppola's film On the Rocks. Following the song's release, frontman Thomas Mars stated that it "goes in a different sonic direction from the LP", which feels "all over the place" and like the "same sort of weird Frankenstein of an album" that the band's debut United is. The version of "Identical" released in 2020 has a duration of 3:13, while the listed length of the Alpha Zulu version is 5:02. ==Artwork and title==

Pascal Teixeira's cover art for Alpha Zulu and accompanying singles is an edited portion of the 1478 painting Madonna col Bambino mediante otto angeli by Sandro Botticelli. The inspiration for the title came from Mars hearing "alpha zulu" over an airplane radio during a bout of turbulence. The words come from the ICAO alphabet, also known as the NATO phonetic alphabet; Alpha would phonetically be used for the letter A, and Zulu for the letter Z. ==Promotion==

Phoenix toured North America during September and October 2022 to promote the album. They performed at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City on 9 September 2022. They also appeared and performed on several late night talk shows including The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Phoenix toured Europe in late 2022 and will tour Asia and make festival appearances across the world in 2023. Phoenix toured North America with Beck from August to September 2023 on the Summer Odyssey Tour, which visited 20 cities. ==Critical reception==

On Metacritic, Alpha Zulu received a score of 84 out of 100 based on 16 critics' reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". ==Track listing==

Phoenix • Deck d'Arcy – bass, keyboards • Laurent Brancowitz – guitars, keyboards • Thomas Mars – vocals, drums, percussion • Christian Mazzalai – guitars Additional musicians • Ezra Koenig – vocals ("Tonight") • Thomas Hedlund – additional drums and percussion ("After Midnight") • Rob – additional keyboards ("All Eyes on Me") Production • Ian Kirkpatrick – additional production ("Alpha Zulu") • Manny Marroquin – mixing • Joe LaPorta – mastering • Zach Pereyra – mixing assistant • Anthony Vilchis – mixing assistant • Trey Station – mixing assistant • Louis Bes – recording assistant • Matt DiMona – engineer • Kyle Parker Smith – engineer • Robin Florent – additional engineering • Jack Lahana – additional engineering • Pierrick Devin – recording engineer ("Identical") • Antoine Peyton – engineering assistance ("Identical") • Daniel Berglund – recording of additional drums and percussion ("After Midnight") • Ariel Rechtshaid – recording of Ezra Koenig's vocals ("Tonight") Design • Pascal Teixeira – art direction and cover design • Liz Hirsch – layout and design ==Charts==