PHOSPHORESCENT : REVELATOR

1. Revelator
2. The World Is Ending
3. Fences
4. Impossible House
5. Wide As Heaven
6. A Moon Behind The Clouds
7. All The Same
8. A Poem On The Men’s Room Wall
9. To Get It Right

Label : Verve Records

Length : 45:35

Release Date : April 5, 2024

Review (Dansende Beren) : Phosphorescent is de complexe nom de plume van Matthew Houck, een Amerikaanse singer-songwriter die tegenwoordig zijn leven en werk in Nashville slijt. Houck bouwde de voorbije decennia aan een cultstatus in de alternatieve kringen met nummers die graag hinten naar Neil Young en Willie Oldham. In tegenstelling tot geestverwanten als Bon Iver of Iron & Wine leidde de eigenzinnigheid van de zanger niet naar een pad vol commercieel succes. Een album vol Willie Nelson-covers kan bijvoorbeeld bezwaarlijk als een lucratieve move beschouwd worden. Wel bouwde Houck aan een uniek oeuvre: van het desolate Pride tot countryalbum Here’s To Taking It Easy overtuigde hij in meerdere stijlen. Klapstuk van die verzameling is Muchacho, een plaat die op meesterlijke wijze alle opgedane indrukken uit eerdere albums bundelt en overstijgt. Met Revelator heeft de zanger na zes jaar opnieuw een nieuwe plaat klaar. We zullen met de deur in huis vallen: op Revelator staan een paar zeer sterke nummers. “Fences” is zo’n eerste, gepolijste parel. Alles is minutieus afgewerkt, strijkerswerk incluis, maar het geheel slaagt erin om zeer klein en ingehouden over te komen en zo het (on)gewenste liefdesverdriet geloofwaardig op te roepen. Eveneens geen kwaad woord over de twee vooruitgeschoven singles. “Revelator” behoort misschien maar tot ‘de goede middenmoot’ van het repertoire van een artiest van dit kaliber, maar blijft enkele maanden na publicatie nog steeds een sterk opgebouwde, harmonieuze single. Ook “Impossible House” staat als een huis. Het nummer is iets hoekiger opgebouwd dan het titelnummer, maar ademt in die wrange, herhaalde refreinen een boosheid uit die we maar weinig horen bij de zanger. Revelator is een harmonieuze folkplaat die haar heil zoekt in vocale en instrumentale harmonie. De nummers waarop samenzang de kenmerkende stem van Houck ondersteunt, zijn veelvoudig. Omstreeks het late duo “All The Same”/“A Poem On The Men’s Room Wall” dreigt de sleur daarvan zich in te zetten. Veel nummers spelen met het contrast tussen warme folkinstrumentatie en lyrics als ‘Why would heaven make me feel so sad’. Het zijn momenten die een warm deken voor hun luisteraars proberen te creëren, maar tot de minder interessante passages van het album gerekend mogen worden. Veel leuker is dan het speelse “A Moon Behind The Clouds” waar diezelfde ingrediënten tot een originele cocktail leiden die ons doen geloven dat de lente een dezer dagen toch definitief kan doorbreken. Gemengde emoties leiden tot onduidelijke eindoordelen, dus gooit Phosphorescent ons op het einde van Revelator onverwacht nog één absoluut wereldnummer toe die de balans compleet doet wankelen. “To Get It Right” is van het beste dat we al hoorden van Houck, en dat wil ontiegelijk veel zeggen tegen het licht van zijn enorme oeuvre. Alsof iemand een stop lostrekt, dansen Houcks demonen opeens in het rond. De breekbare stem van de zanger, de zachte instrumentale begeleiding en het herhalende ritme van het nummer zorgen voor een ongelofelijke apotheose van deze plaat. Geen ziel zal na “To Get It Right” beargumenteren dat Phosphorescent ons niet meer raken op plaatsen waar het pijn doet. Revelator is uiteindelijk een plaat vol warme folkmuziek geworden. Zoals het vaak gaat binnen dat genre leidt dat tot minder wrange maagstoten, maar ligt haar breekbaarheid eerder in haar zachte harmonieën. Het strekt Houck tot eer dat hij ons ook op dat spectrum meerdere keren weet te raken. Om de zanger een ‘revelatie’ te noemen, gaat hij al iets te lang mee, maar wie op 26 augustus naar het Rivierenhof trekt, zal wel een vakman met een oprechte liefde voor zijn muziek aan het werk zien.

Review (Under The Radar) : On Matthew Houck’s first album of originals in six years, he steps away from the glistening, quicksilver chimes of 2018’s C’est La Vie. Stripping back both musically and melodically, Houck proffers a record both wracked with anxiety and comforting in its shared sorrow. The opening, title track reassures us that Houck hasn’t entirely abandoned melody in favor of misery. As a steel pedal mourns over a soft shoe shuffle, he can’t resist crafting affecting lines such as “I don’t even like what I write / I don’t even like what I like any more” with an insistent, memorable lilt. Thematically, nothing is neat and tidy here, but Houck carves couplets from the chaos, as on “Fences,” a relationship dissection that sees him detail, “The stars were out to shine but you were way gone / I saw it in the way you laced your shoe.” Restraint is key on Revelator, as evidenced on “Impossible House,” which opens up briefly into orchestral wonder before retreating again into sleepy, graceful simplicity. The measured pace, interrupted only briefly by the sweet violin fancy of “A Moon Behind the Clouds,” will frustrate some, and the length of songs like “Wide As Heaven,” a slowdance at the end of the world, could be termed indulgent—but it’s ultimately an album to slip into, all graceful and sleepy, Houck guiding the listener across rocky lyrical terrain with a sad and simple musical refrain. Houck looks outward, away from the deeply personal, on “The World Is Ending,” written by Houck’s partner Jo Schornikow, an elegant assessment of the end times we seem to be living through: “Until they send some scientist to come and prove me wrong / I know the world is ending.” Similarly, a broader view is taken on the delicious “A Poem on the Men’s Room Wall,” which boasts the smartest, most philosophical lyrics on the album, declaring “Hidden lies and alibis…Open skies and darkened eyes” as “all the same” in a stoic, almost beatific chant. Here the drums break into life, shifting from keeping time to cracking through it, and it’s a pleasurably dynamic moment. Optimism arrives just at the bell on closer “To Get It Right,” with wry lines such as “Fear is the mind killer / Beer is the fear killer / This beer is killer,” as Houck lifts the veil of melancholy to reveal a gentle grin. Revelator is a careful but honest album, a lingering, languorous sojourn that offers strange solace even as its world falls apart.

Review (Pop Matters) : With 2013’s Muchacho and 2018’s C’est La Vie, Matthew Houck, working under the moniker Phosphorescent, documented his crumbling idealism while clinging to an appreciation for beauty. Both sets addressed humanity’s paradoxical nature, Houck’s lyrics wafting above meticulously crafted soundscapes. His latest set, Revelator, finds him in a more self-reflective space. Life is still daunting, the psyche untamable, and the world an unpredictable cauldron. Houck’s vocals, however, frequently exude equanimity, pointing to the singer-songwriter’s budding acceptance of suffering, ephemerality, and death. “I got tired of sadness / I got tired of all the madness / I got tired of being a badass all the time,” Houck announces on the title track, expressing frustration with his personality and habits. He goes on to reference unfortunate decisions, romances that didn’t work out, and the shutdown of “the city” (at once a metaphor for the decline of Western culture and a probable allusion to Covid). As the track nears completion, he elaborates, “I don’t even like what I like anymore”, bringing to mind Dylan’s “Queen Jane” lyric, “You’re tired of yourself / And all of your creations”, both artists alluding to a profound disruption of identity (Bob Dylan sounding wryly philosophic, Houck more pensively diaristic). Phosphorescent - Revelator (Official Music Video) In “Fences”, built around well-polished organ and pedal steel parts, Houck’s vocal is alternately strained and plaintive. “I guess I must have asked too much of you,” Phosphorescent ponders, reflecting on a friend or partner who was an expert at erecting barriers. Saliently, he extends forgiveness – to the other person and, perhaps, to himself. “The stars were out to shine, but you were way gone / I saw it in the way you laced your shoe,” he adds in a notably descriptive couplet, conjuring the way someone can be in the presence of something magical yet be checked out, lost in thought. “Impossible House” crosses shuffling beats, slick synths, and melodic guitars. Houck’s gravelly vocal edge complements his austere lyricism. In “Wide as Heaven”, Houck leaps between dramatic imagery and wistful declarations, striving for pathos (“Time is a raven with a beak of blood / crying at seven every morning”), though he occasionally stumbles into bathos (“Why does heaven make me feel so sad?”). The song’s final two minutes feature a transportive semi-classical wash of string sounds, percussion, and ambient effects, recalling the sublime sonics of earlier work. “A Moon Behind the Clouds” reflects Phosphorescent’s indebtedness to Paul Simon, particularly Graceland’s popularization of South African beats. That said, in terms of overall tone and timbre, Houck is more melancholy and less ironically pitched than Simon, more in line with the Tallest Man on Earth or recent performances from the National’s Matt Berninger. “A Poem on the Men’s Room Wall”, meanwhile, moves between frat-house graffiti (“Fear is the mind killer / Beer is the fear killer”) and coffeeshop verse (“I traded in thunder / But that’s only weather / And I owe you better than that”). Houck emanates fatigue, and yet, as mentioned, his even-keeled vocal points to a certain unflappability, a capacity to see “the light in the trees” even as he feels “cold and lonely”. Phosphorescent - Impossible House (Official Music Video) Lilting closer, “To Get It Right”, pokes at the mystery of existence, how history is packed with theories, recommendations, analyses, anecdotes, and endorsements, though as the Buddha, Ed Murphy, and Arthur Bloch knew, crap happens. Things don’t go as planned; disappointment occurs, and, as Yogi Berra might add, the perfect batting average is imperfect. Houck’s riff on the matter goes as follows: “You’ve done all right, but it’s all untrue / It’s a full-on nightmare,” which is to say: the reflection in the mirror is an illusion, and the road to hell is lined with breathtaking flowers. In short, “to get it right is hard to do”. Phosphorescent’s Revelator is less melodically charged than Muchacho and C’est La Vie (or even parts of Here’s to Taking It Easy). Also, Houck’s vocals sometimes flounder in woozy, loungey, soft-pillow mixes. That said, Revelator is a transitional album for Houck, as he turns his attention more unwaveringly to interior dynamics, less preoccupied with the vagaries of the external world. Regret is a waste of time, though desire seems equally suspect, another karmic perpetuator (as Leonard Cohen might say). Speaking into this cycle of craving and remorse, Houck concludes his latest set with newfound composure, offering words of encouragement: “It’s what we do.” Revelator captures his endeavor to encounter life as it is, practicing vulnerability, empathy, and a degree of self-effacement.

Review (The Wee Review) : Define: ‘Phosphorescent’: An object or colour which glows in the dark with a soft light, but gives out little or no heat. Matthew Houck, aka Phosphorescent, returns and lives up to the Collins Dictionary definition. The Alabaman, now based in Nashville, is the human equivalent of optimism, dimmed. Revelator, his ninth studio album follows the breakthrough albums of Muchacho and C’est La Vie, bringing his New York cool to the home of country music. The influence is loud and clear across the nine songs here; pedal steel (obvs) meets the insouciant instrumentation, which in turn complements the understated explorations of Revelator. The underlying melancholy of Phosphorescent’s music is present, no doubt a mood enhanced by a near-fatal bout of meningitis, bringing children into the world and oh, a global pandemic as well. Revelator might at first sound like it offers a fresh outlook but first the album wrestles with an ongoing, ambient sense of dread. Dealing in themes of working at life, drifting through relationships and enjoying those hard-won moments of light – Revelator is a slow-burn meditation on all of these against a backdrop of gorgeously structured songs and harmonies. “I got tired of sadness / I got tired of all the madness / I got tired of being a badass all the time,” opens the title track. It’s a plaintive mission statement with which Houck reintroduces Phosphorescent. It perhaps alludes to the very different approaches to life in the Big Apple and Nashville. His new home offers a wider space to explore his musicality. ‘The World Is Ending’, written by his partner Jo Schornikow, takes a cynical look at the way many people view the world through their own lens rather than with genuine empathy. While closer to home, the companion pieces of ‘Fences’ and ‘Impossible House’ examine the challenges of maintaining long-term partnerships. Houck asks on ‘Wide As Heaven’: “Why would heaven make me feel so sad? Why would heaven never notice?” It’s a teasing question, pondering what happens when a seemingly perfect life can’t shake off a lingering darkness. Songs continue to contrast between the chinks of hope (‘Moon Behind the Clouds’), the objective ordinariness of the everyday (‘All The Same’) and Dylan-esque ‘Poem On The Men’s Room Wall’. All, in their own ways, consider the importance of viewing life’s challenges as unique individuals. Revelator really in this sense epitomizes the country music mantra of ‘three chords and the truth’. It takes that basic principle and elevates it to new heights on closer ‘To Get It Right’. Sprawling out over seven minutes, it is an epic track that leaves you just a bit transformed by its conclusion. The gentle slow burn gradually rises to an all-out climax. It is a clarion call of hope. The hope is that hard times will pay off if we stick with the tough bits in life, like this song demonstrates after the preceding eight. The song’s cinematic cosmic synths and ever looser, free-er drums, pianos and organs build a communal in-it-together gospel vibe. Revelator is a revelation of what modern Americana can be but also for the beauty of melancholy in providing space for reflection and hope. A brilliant album from an artist one feels is ready to go on a whole new trajectory. Watch Phosphorescent shine a little brighter from now on.