Record Review: Phosphorescent - Here's To Taking It Easy

For Tiny Mix Tapes:

Phosphorescent
Here's To Taking It Easy
Dead Oceans

I guess it’s ironic that the first song on Here’s To Taking It Easy filled me with dread. It wasn’t that it’s not a good song — “It’s Hard To Be Humble (When You’re From Alabama)” actually packs quite a punch — it was that Matthew Houck seemed so thoroughly to have abandoned that woozy, otherworldly echo that characterized his most recent record of original material, 2007’s immaculate Pride. That album meant so much to me — the thundering cadence of “At Death, A Proclamation” seemed literally taken from my own experience (it features a field recording done of my own college marching band’s drumline) — that the idea of an artist, even one I loved so much, moving on from that compositional place was a scary one, however relaxed the album’s name might be...[Read more]

[MP3] Phosphorescent - "It's Hard To Be Humble (When You're From Alabama)" (via Dead Oceans)


Read other FOA posts about Phosphorescent here.