Thirty Days of Music Day 08 - A Song That You Know All The Lyrics To

Ok so I admit I may have taken the easy route for this choice, considering Love Like A Sunset only has about ten lines of lyrics - but the song is completely worthy of being included in my 30 days of music. Sunset is a climactic, diverse, slow burning rollercoaster - one of the best songs from 2009 masterpiece Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.

 Sunset is driven by dramatic bass and electronic doodling, and it progresses stage by stage becoming more and more tense. Phoenix have mastered perfectly the manipulation of volume for effect, changing effortlessly from loud synths and forboding bass to trickling, anticlimactic guitar. However, it turns out that the highlight of the song is when the lyrics kick in. You have to wait six minutes - is it really waiting, though, when the song is this good? - for the stunning Mars vocals to arrive, but when they do they’re breathtaking. The melody is unbelievably uplifting and the lyrics are simple but powerful, Mars singing out ‘Day comes/ A visible horizon/ Right where it starts and ends’.

 I saw Phoenix live at Reading Festival this year, and they were absolutely incredible. Love Like A Sunset is possibly the best live track I have ever seen, and they performed it to an even higher level than that of the album recording. Mars’ voice is brilliantly versatile, and Phoenix should definitely be on your list of bands to see live.