Alphabetical (album)

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Alphabetical is the second studio album by French indie pop band Phoenix, released in 2004. The album has two singles, "Everything Is Everything" and "Run Run Run".

Commercial performance

The album has sold 30,000 copies in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Overall it has shipped 170,000 copies worldwide <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> with 65,000 shipped units in continental Europe and Japan, 20,000 of those were in France.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Critical response

Alphabetical was met with largely positive reviews. DIY Magazine called the record "a beautiful and melodious, yet still not quite on a par with some of their debut album."<ref name="DIY Mag 2024-07-20">Template:Cite news</ref> Drowned in Sound described Alphabetical as "a deceptively simply album; a lot of work has gone into making tunes as beautifully organic as this sound so impressively pieced together." They gave the album 8/10, concluding it to be "so utterly, utterly Parisian. Not French, mind, Parisian. But what else did you expect? The most sophisticated, deliciously out of step pop album of 2004 simply had to come from the most urbane, beautiful city in the world."<ref name="Drowned in Sound 2004-05-14">Template:Cite news</ref> Pitchfork praised the lead single "Everything Is Everything" as "a glorious example of how to write a classically ambiguous soft-pop song." They gave the album a score of 6.7 describing the entire record as something that "doesn't ask you to remember it in the morning."<ref name="Pitchfork 2004-05-17">Template:Cite news</ref>

Personnel

• Deck D'Arcy – bass guitar, keyboards and backing vocals
• Laurent Brancowitz – guitar, keyboards and backing vocals
• Thomas Mars – vocals and drums
• Christian Mazzalai – guitar and backing vocals

Additional musicians

• Ivan Beck – acoustic guitar (4)
• Pino Palladino – bass (5, 7, 10)
• Jm Mery – additional keyboards (7, 8, 10)
• Alex Locascio – drums and percussion (1, 3, 4, 5)

Charts

Template:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chart

Chart performance for Alphabetical

Chart (2004)	Peak position
Belgian Alternative Albums (Ultratop Flanders)<ref name="Flanders"/>	19
Japanese Albums (Oricon)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	265

Release history

Release history and formats for Alphabetical

Country	Date	Label	Format	Catalog
Japan	24 March 2005	Toshiba-EMI	CD	VJCP 68627
Template:Hlist	29 March 2004	Source	LP	SOURLP095
			CD	CDSOUR095
France	30 March 2004
Australia	12 April 2004	Virgin		5986350
United States	27 July 2004	Template:Hlist		7243 5 98635 0 4