Description
Phantogram – Voices – Double Vinyl Record
Voices, released on February 18, 2014, is the second studio album by American electronic rock duo Phantogram (Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter). Coming four years after their acclaimed debut Eyelid Movies (2010), Voices marked the moment when Phantogram stepped into a broader spotlight. The album sharpened their signature blend of trip-hop beats, shoegaze textures, synth-driven atmospheres, and dark pop hooks, resulting in a work that was at once moodily experimental and strikingly accessible.
The record is steeped in Phantogram’s signature contrast between beauty and grit: Barthel’s ethereal vocals and dreamy synth lines are set against Carter’s heavier guitar textures, chopped samples, and hip-hop-inspired rhythms. This interplay gives the music a sense of constant tension — at times seductive and at others menacing. Where Eyelid Movies leaned more toward lo-fi textures, Voices is bigger, bolder, and more cinematic, reflecting the band’s growing confidence and ambition.
The lead single, “Fall in Love,” is a perfect encapsulation of the album’s ethos. Built around a chopped-up vocal sample and a booming beat, it layers swirling synths and Barthel’s urgent vocals into a mesmerizing, kaleidoscopic anthem. It became one of the band’s breakout songs, propelling them onto mainstream radio and festival stages. Another highlight, “Black Out Days,” is equally powerful: a driving, hypnotic track about emotional escape that has become a fan favorite for its cathartic intensity.
The album balances these high-energy moments with more introspective tracks. “Howling at the Moon” and “Bill Murray” (named after the actor, who reportedly inspired the song’s mood) showcase Phantogram’s atmospheric side, with melancholy lyrics floating above lush, downtempo arrangements. “I Don’t Blame You” and “Never Going Home” lean toward the raw and vulnerable, offering glimpses of fragility beneath the album’s glossy production.
Voices explores themes of isolation, desire, disillusionment, and inner conflict. Barthel and Carter’s songwriting often embraces ambiguity and mood over direct storytelling, making the songs feel like fragments of memory or dream sequences. This abstraction, paired with the dense production, gives the album its immersive, cinematic quality.
The production, handled by John Hill (along with Barthel and Carter), is sleek but textured, layering beats, synths, and guitars into a dense but carefully balanced soundscape. There are echoes of Portishead, Massive Attack, and Cocteau Twins, but also an ear for pop structure that keeps the songs immediate.
Voices was well received, with many praising its ambition and its ability to bridge underground aesthetics with mainstream appeal. It charted higher than their debut, peaking at #11 on the Billboard 200, and helped cement Phantogram’s reputation as one of the leading acts in the electronic rock/indie pop scene of the 2010s. Songs like “Fall in Love” and “Black Out Days” became staples of their live shows and remain some of their most-streamed tracks.
Voices represents the moment when Phantogram truly defined their identity: not just an indie act dabbling in electronic textures, but a distinctive band capable of balancing darkness and light, intimacy and grandeur. It paved the way for their later, heavier and more emotionally charged record Three (2016), while still standing as perhaps their most immediately satisfying collection of songs.
Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic
Track Listing
Nothing But Trouble
Black Out Days
Fall In Love
Never Going Home
The Day You Died
Howling At The Moon
Bad Dreams
Bill Murray
I Don’t Blame You
Celebrating Nothing
My Only Friend
