Bankrupt! is the first new Phoenix album from the Grammy Award winning group in four years. It is not a political or financial statement. It does not offer solutions to the world's great problems or suggest excitement over insolvency.

Guitarist Laurent 'Branco' Brancowitz has described Bankrupt! as an album of greater depth than previous Phoenix releases:"This album has more layers. The more you listen, the more you hear, and the more you really understand what's going on. At the same time, we wanted it to be really fluid and simple like a sphere made of marble. You just see a sphere, but there's a guy who polished it for a year."