Phoenix have released a new track called ‘Alpha Zulu’. Listen to the song below.

The song marks the French band’s first new music in two years. The title and lyric ‘Alpha Zulu’ come from a phrase frontman Thomas Mars heard a pilot repeating over the radio during a flight as the plane hit turbulence. The urgency of the situation and phrase stuck with Mars and inspired the track.

According to a release, the band is currently in the studio finishing up their first new album in five years, and follow-up to 2017’s ‘Ti Amo’. ‘Alpha Zulu’ is also said to foreshadow the sound of Phoenix’s upcoming album, hinting at “bold new sonic horizons.”

The band from Versailles is currently on tour, will multiple festival dates on the horizon, including a homecoming show at Paris’ We Love Green Festival as well as a slot at Primavera Sound in Barcelona with more shows to be announced. Check out tickets here and view the current list of shows below.

Phoenix tour dates:

JUNE
1 – Nimes, FR – Paloma
3 – Saint-Brieuc, FR – Festival Art Rock
4 – Paris, FR – We Love Green
8 – Barcelona, ES – Primavera In The City
10 – Lyon, FR – Nuits de Fourviere
11 – Barcelona, ES – Primavera Sound

SEPTEMBER
17-18 – Atlanta, GA – Music Midtown
23-25 – Bentonville, AR – Format Festival

OCTOBER
14-16 – Austin, TX – ACL

The four-piece shared the standalone single ‘Identical’ last summer. According to frontman Thomas Mars, ‘Identical’, which was released as part of the On The Rocks OST, will make it on a forthcoming album “somehow”.

At the time of the song’s arrival, Mars offered an update on what the band’s upcoming seventh album might sound like: “There’s no coherence and it’s a little bit like our first record, maybe; ‘United’, which had songs that would explore heavy metal and then country music.” Mars added: “This is the same sort of weird Frankenstein of an album.”