Phosphorescent - Muchacho - Music & Performance - CD

Matthew Houck has a highly distinctive artistic voice and a refreshing, rolled-sleeves approach to his work. 2007's Pride a spare and haunting work of country, southern gospel and forlorn folk-ish drone first caused ears to swivel in Phosphorescent's direction. He followed it with to Willie, then 2010's Here's to Taking It Easy, an enthusiastic plunge into country rock and rolling Americana. Now, his sixth album Muchacho flashes yet another color in the subtly shifting Phosphorescent spectrum.

Under the name Phosphorescent, indie country songwriter Matthew Houck has walked a drunken path, wobbling closer to the indie side on some records and slumping more toward the country side on others, with the best example being his 2009 collection of Willie Nelson covers, To Willie. With sixth album Muchacho, Houck returns to some of the experimental textures that marked his early breakthrough album Pride, weaving ambient tones and feral whoops throughout his sometimes shiny, sometimes grizzled Americana. The album is bookended by tracks "Sun, Arise!" and "Sun's Arising," meditative drones with multi-tracked layers of Houck harmonizing with himself, ushering the listener into and out of the record over arpeggiated synth tones and far-off-sounding instrumentation. There's more implementation of electronic instruments here than most Phosphorescent material that came before, with 808 drum patterns and dubby echoes in the forefront on some songs, but at no point does the songwriting surrender the starring role. Whether the tunes are piling on pedal steel and mariachi trumpet in the vein of Dylan's soundtrack work for Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, as on the honky tonk hoedown of "A Charm/A Blade," or finding some dreamy Will Oldham/early Animal Collective hybrid, as with the ghostly "The Quotidian Beasts," Houck's use of simplistic but haunting chord progressions and world-weary melodies always overrides any other sonic surroundings. The songs here are so strong, in fact, they're sometimes cluttered by excessive instrumentation or detail-burying production. While the atmospheric string loops and delay-doused bass plucks of "Song for Zula" help make it one of the best tracks on the album, one can't help but wonder what the effect would be if it were stripped down to Houck's damaged vocals and a simple guitar or piano figure. Throughout the album, lyrics peek through the waves like "I will not open myself up this way again" and "Hey can this kill me? I don't know, but I've sure been finding out," hinting at heartache and the possibility that Muchacho is some drunken-hearted breakup record, but it's never made abundantly clear. What is clear, even through the sometimes heavier-than-necessary arrangements, is that Muchacho has some of Houck's best songwriting since his early days, seemingly tapped into the grainy pain, hard-living tendencies, and wandering muse of his subconscious with the most listenable results Phosphorescent has produced in years. ~ Fred Thomas, Rovi

Performer	Phosphorescent
Music genre	Country
Music subgenre	Singer/Songwriter
Music release type	Album
Media format	CD
Original release date	2013
Language	English
Is collectible	Y
Has parental advisory label	N
Number of discs	1
Track listing	Sun, Arise! (An Invocation, An Introduction), Song for Zula, Ride On/Right on, Terror in the Canyons (The Wounded Master), A Charm/A Blade, Muchacho's Tune, A New Anhedonia, The Quotidian Beasts, Down to Go, Sun's Arising (A Koan, An Exit)
Record label	Dead Oceans
Track name	Sun, Arise! (An Invocation, An Introduction), Song For Zula, Ride On / Right On, Terror In The Canyons (The Wounded Master), A Charm/ A Blade, Muchacho's Tune, A New Anhedonia, The Quotidian Beasts, Down To Go, Sun's Arising (A Koan, An Exit)
Music media format	CD
Is edited	N
Is enhanced	N