CD Review
Phosphorescent
Here’s to Taking it Easy
(Dead Oceans)
Sometimes you get sent new albums and you just want to say thank you. This is one of those times. Love this album.

Phosphorescent — largely the work of one Matthew Houck — come under the broad heading of alt.country, though to my ears, there isn’t always a lot of alt about it.  Yes, they do songs that aren’t strictly speaking country and western, but sometimes they are.   The comparisons that are made are with Will Oldham or Neil Young, but I reckon early Randy Newman, middle-period Vic Chesnutt (especially his works with Lambchop) or Bon Iver are better points of reference.

The other band they remind me of is The Band, though a more sober, less virtuoso version.

The album kicks off with the, surely ironically titled, ‘It’s Hard to be Humble (When You’re From Alabama)’, a rollicking, Bandesque piece that could’ve come off Chesnutt’s album with Lambchop, The Salesman and Bernadette (one of my favourite albums).  In bounces along with horns and pedal steel blazing.  Track 2, ‘Nothing was Stolen’ is a little slower, less rocking, but the vocals are superbly done.  I presume it is overdubs rather than a bunch of singers, but it has a great country choir quality to it, all underpinned by a strong, sing-a-long, melody.

These two tracks, though, act to mislead.  The rest of the album moves in other directions and, by and large, a direction I prefer.

Track three, ‘We’ll Be Here Soon’, is a beautiful acoustic ballad that highlights Matthew Houck’s sweet tenor voice perfectly.  It’s just one of those sad, whimsical tracks I can listen to over and over again, a lovely melodic piece drenched in pathos.

Then things get really exciting.  Track 4, ‘The Mermaid Parade’, is another ballad, slightly more uptempo, but no less sad.  Lyrically interesting and again, well sung, it was at this point that I really started paying attention and realised we might have a keeper on our hands.

That leaves five more tracks.  Given that the path of true love rarely runs smooth, you won’t be surprised to hear that two of these five aren’t that great: ‘I Don’t Care if There’s Cursing’ and ‘Heaven, Sittin’ Down’.  They’re okay, but all a bit cutesy and bland for me.

But in this final clutch, we also get ‘Tell Me Baby (Have You Had Enough)’, ‘Hej, I’m Light’ and the final track ‘Los Angeles’.  All great.

‘Tell Me Baby’ sort of justifies the Neil Young comparison, though Houck’s voice and guitar are much more restrained and melodic than our Neil’s.  Still, there is that sort of syncopated chunkiness that Young gets and the song itself is worthy of the master.  An electric ballad, it milks the achey breaky quality in Houck’s voice and wraps it up in a slide-infested melody that lingers in the mind.

‘Hej, I’m Light’ is, in one sense, completely out of context.  It is a folk chant, not a million miles from Justin Vernon’s work with Volcano Choir (an album I reviewed here).  I’ve read some reviews that pan this track, but I reckon that’s nonsense.  Despite being a bit left field in amongst the rest of the tracks, it works well enough, but, more importantly, is good song in its own right.

The final track, ‘Los Angeles’, is a great way to finish.  I think it is probably the strongest song on the album and if you want a musical reference, I’d suggest Lucinda Williams’ album, Essence.  A long, measured electric ballad, it has a sort of haunting urgency that took me with it for all of its 9-minute ride.  This will definitely feature on my songs-of-the-year list.

So look, don’t want to oversell it, but if the you are vaguely into the bands and artists I’ve mentioned by way of comparison, I don’t think you’ll regret investing in this one (it’s available on eMusic, for all those who use that service).  For me, this is one of the highlights of the musical year.