Apologies for the scarcity of posts lately, Drewl and I were attending our sister’s wedding and you know how emotional and inebriated family weddings can get.

That said, one of the things that has been slowly easing me back to Planet Earth is the the new Phoenix album, It’s Never Been Like That.

Fans of The Southland and other mellow 70s rock-pop stylings will enjoy this. I don’t know if it’s reception hangover, but this group of Parisians has quickly pulled even with Islands and Band of Horses as one of my favorites of the first half of 2006.

• Listen to Consolation Prizes
• Listen to Rally
• Listen to Long Distance Call

That should be sufficient enough for you to want to buy this album from or your favorite indie record store.

If not, here’s the video for “Long Distance Call”.

Listen to more on Phoenix’s MySpace page.