Phantogram arrived on the alt-rock scene at the inception of the 2010s, but I didn’t discover the duo of Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter until they appeared on Big Boi’s Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors. After catching noteriety thanks to Daddy Fat Sax, “When I’m Small” from their sophomore album Voices (with standouts “Fall In Love” and “Howling At The Moon) popped up in a car commercial, which came paired with their growing buzz.
Then attraction toward the duo intensified when the news broke they’d be working with Big Boi over the course of an entire project — Big Grams — which turned out to be one of the favorite project at the DopeHouse last year.
Now veterans in the music world, they’re ready to release their third album, simply titled Three.
If you’ve followed the release of the album since they shared “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore,” you might’ve heard most of it already. Including the first single, they’ve dropped six of the album’s 10 tracks: “Run Run Blood,” “Cruel World,” “Same Old Blues,” “You’re Mine” and “Calling All.”
The duo’s been comfortably honest on the project thus far. In an interview with Zane Lowe in June, Barthel said, “we’ve kind of had a tough year, so a lot of inspiration and drive came from our own experiences.” She also described the album as “a lot more fucking boombastic and heavy” than their previous work, and that’s an accurate description so far through six of the 10 songs.
Stream Three below, and download the album on iTunes.
