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Album Reviews
Album Review: Phosphorescent – Here’s To Taking It Easy (Dead Oceans)
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 21 September 2010
Phosphorescent is the recording name of the much less glamorous sounding Matthew Houck, a singer-songwriter in the Will Oldham mould, blurring the lines between folk and alt-country.
‘Here’s To Taking It Easy’ is Houck’s fifth studio album, hot on the heels of last year’s ‘To Willie’, which was a mild diversion into covers territory that often seems to be the way for numerous independent artists (Cat Power and Okkervil River are amongst two who’ve done this). A tribute to Willie Nelson, it demonstrated the influence more conventional country music has on the more ‘hip’, rock-orientated take on the genre.
Houck returns to his day job, so to speak, with full band in tow, fleshing out his sound and giving it more substance. Never is this more apparent than on the opening track, ‘It’s Hard To Be Humble (When You’re From Alabama)’. Underpinned by driving guitar and a horn section, Houck makes his stylistic intentions clear. This is up-tempo, ‘Born To Run’ era Springsteen-esque rock!
Elsewhere, ‘Nothing Was Stolen (Love Me Foolishly’) – Houck is fond of titles with parentheses – is back in more standard territory, using double tracked vocals to create an effect that isn’t too dissimilar from the alt-country harmonies of Fleet Foxes. Meanwhile, the likes of ‘Mermaid Parade’ and ‘Tell Me Baby (Have You Had Enough) weave melancholic tales of bruising romantic experiences but never feel contrived.
Although Houck still retains a desire to unleash his inner rock musician, as he does on the six-minute electric epic, ‘Los Angeles’, it’s probably still with the more subtle moments that he impresses most and he probably does about enough to distinguish himself from the rest of what is already a densely populated field. KW
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