★★★★★
LOW"The Invisible Way"(Sub Pop)
Low has always been a gospel group, by fiat if not for its actual content. Its music -- hushed, syrupy indie rock that's ecstatic in a roundabout way -- isn't religious per se, but it does embody reverence as well as any soaring operatic solo or monster-power choir.
That was the band's selling point in its early years, but lately it's evolved. It already turned things up to 11 -- O.K...
- www.nytimes.com
2013-04-01
★★★★★
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)...
- www.thecmuwebsite.com
2013-04-01
★★★★★
Music Reviews
Phosphorescent Muchacho
(Dead Oceans)
Buy it from Insound
At first, it was a real struggle to get into Muchacho. Living in the UK, I was listening to it with snow falling down outside and it just didn't fit. Then spring finally arrives, there are few clouds for once and I can see some bright thing in the sky, I think people call it the Sun, but I'm not used to it so I'm not sure. And Muchacho clicks...
- www.noripcord.com
2013-04-01
★★★★★
Phosphorescent, AKA Alabama-born Matthew Houck, is something of an American throwback. Albeit one with a twist, adding subtle beds of electronics to his inherited folk and country sounds. And despite a disinclination for 'grand statements', 'Muchacho' (his seventh record in ten years) is exactly that...
- www.clashmusic.com
2013-04-01
★★★★★
Here's To Taking Things Easy. It may have been the title of Phosphorescent's last album, but it's obviously not a mantra that Matthew Houck believes in. 2013 marks his 10th anniversary as a recording artist, in which time he's released six albums, supported the likes of The National, and, of late, become something of a fixture on Hollywood soundtracks...
- www.musicomh.com
2013-04-01
★★★★★
Phosphorescent's sole proprietor, Matthew Houck, begins his sixth proper full-length album, Muchacho, with a bit of a fake-out. The ethereal album-opener, "Sun, Arise! (An Invocation, An Introduction)"--with its multi-layered harmonized vocals and burbling, bubbling keyboards bordering on space-age--indicates that perhaps Houck is feeling a little Fleet Foxy this time out...
- www.avclub.com
2013-04-01
★★★★★
Bro, sometimes bros need a shoulder to cry on. Ladies, it's true. It's called bro on bro time and I've probably just broken the bro code by telling you about this. Sorry bros. Bro time only happens past midnight, when both of you are drunk, and at least one of you is going through a rough patch. This is the only acceptable time when we can shed our feelings Oprah-style. And the next day we act like nothing ever happened...
- www.syffal.com
2013-04-01
★★★★★
Matthew Houck's sixth album as Phosphorescent underwent an odd, protracted gestation.
Exhausted following a lengthy stint touring 2010's acclaimed Here's to Taking It Easy, the Alabama-born singer-songwriter returned to Brooklyn and bought a bunch of old analogue gear.
Duly equipped, he began cooking up "strange sound pieces". "I was thinking I might make an ambient record that had vocals, but no lyrics," he says of this period...
- www.bbc.co.uk
2013-04-01
★★★★★
PhosphorescentMuchacho (Dead Oceans) Rating: 4 out of 5 starsStream This Album "Song For Zula," the second track on Phosphorescent's sixth album Muchacho, begins with a line cribbed from the Man in Black: "Some say love is a burning thing/ and it makes a fiery ring." For those paying attention to Matthew Houck's output up to this point, this shouldn't come as that much of a surprise. In 2009, he released To Willie, an entire album of Willie Nelson covers...
- www.americansongwriter.com
2013-04-01