How French Band Phoenix Found a ‘Happy Accident’ With Original Song for ‘On the Rocks’

A version of this story about Phoenix, “On the Rocks” and the Original Song contender “Identical” appeared in the Race Begins issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Phoenix frontman Thomas Mars described the track “Identical” as though it were Cinderella’s glass slipper: It’s a song that delivers a first taste of the French rock band’s next album, which will be its first since 2017’s “Ti Amo,” but it’s also a perfect fit for the conclusion of Sofia Coppola’s “On the Rocks.” The song, he said, had an unexpectedly “strange echo to the movie” and to the loving but strained relationship of the characters played by Bill Murray and Rashida Jones.