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

On Phosphorescent's fifth LP, Matthew Houck seems ever so weary of modern living, and his rebellion is another album that refuses to match its tireless pace. "Now baby all these cities/they're all starting to look all the same", he croons on Here's To Taking It Easy's opening track, 'It's Hard To Be Humble (When You're From Alabama)'. This theme of lethargy towards urban life runs throughout the record, and fuzzily charming it is too.

Despite currently residing in the reasonably busy and cosmopolitan borough of Brooklyn, he sounds happiest when lazily deploring the very environment in which he lives and works. From the steel guitar of the aforementioned track, in which Houck sounds uncannily upbeat, like Adam Green at a Hawaiian luau, to the choral harmony on 'Los Angeles',there's a defiant absence of a sense of urgency, lending authenticity to the record's country leanings.

Houck's been a cynical chap since 2005's Aw Come Aw Wry, and while his arrangements have evidently become more complex, notably experimenting in this record in vocal harmony, most successfully on stand-out track 'Hej, Me I'm Light', his vocals have barely changed at all, still cracking heartbreakingly in the manner of Lou Reed's on 'Pale Blue Eyes'.

In terms of these arrangements, Here's To Taking It Easy doesn't feel like much of a progression from his last album of original material, 2007's Pride. He's found a rather aurally pleasing combination of steel guitar, muted horns and the odd driving piano line and stuck firmly with it. Similarly, the lyrical penchant for lamenting the impediments of our times on songs such as 'Cocaine Lights'is still present, resignedly defiant on 'I Don't Care If There's Cursing': "I don't care if you like me/I don't care if you don't".

Interestingly, Here's To Taking It Easy differs fundamentally from Pride in thatPhophorescent are no longer officially one-man band; having previously recorded every instrument part separately, Houck has stepped aside to allow his touring band to do the honours in the studio. The effect is marked in that the palpable loneliness and sense of isolation is lacking here, which is possibly partly responsible for the comparisons with howling countrymen such as Neil Young and Will Oldham that have been drawn through this album.

While it's a pleasant listen, it's slightly disappointing that Houck hasn't deviated further from an existing formula. With tracks like 'Hej, Me I'm Light' clearly demonstrating his desire to experiment enthusiastically with Phosphorescent's sound and musical structure, it seems counter-productive to constantly revert to strikingly similar songwriting to previous efforts.