New Music: Phosphorescent

The Bitter Southerner recommended Phosphorescent's latest album, Muchacho,  on their Best of 2013 list. Always into Southern everything, I gave it a try this week. This week I took a different approach. I kept a tab open as I listened and mulit-tasked and jotted down notes live-blogging style. Below are my thoughts from start to finish.

Track 1: Sun, Arise - Oh, kinda sounds like Mumford melodies.
Track 2: Song for Zula - okay, so there's the electronica coming in, but not in a German techno club kinda way. It's not bad. Love the addition of violin.
Track 3: Ride On/Right On - Nice beat. Kinda like the little yelps, but are they too often to be annoying? Nope, I like this song. Might even put it on Bryan's next mixed CD.
Track 4: Terror in the Canyons - Starting a little twangy, aren't we? Not my favorite track on the disc, but it shows Matthew Houck's versatility.
Track 5: A Charm/A Blade - Harmonies! I love multiple voice harmonies. It's beautiful and soothing. There is a lot going on in this song. The yelps come back, a tad twangy, harmonies, and rock.
Track 6: Machacho's Tune - "I fix myself up to come and be with you." A slow tune.
Track 7: A New Anhedonia - another slow, more twangy song. Beautiful and a little haunting.
Track 8: The Quotidian Beasts - these are some weird song titles. I do love the use of pianos in the last few songs. Violin is back in this song. What's the word for the breaks where it's just instrumental? I can't think of the particular word, but I love it in this song.
Track 9: Down to Go - I am starting to get bored of these slow, twangy songs. This one has a trumpet in it.
Track 10: Sun's Arising - sounds Mumfordy again. You know, I can kinda see hearing this if I was waking up in one of those glamorous tents in Africa somewhere. The sun's coming up and someone has delivered fresh, hot coffee to my glamorous tent filled with oriental rugs and beautiful antiques. Life is good.

I listened to this album on Spotify and it then included 12 more tracks that were recorded live at St. Pancras Church. I won't bore you with my live-blogging of those. I will say, it's more mellow and you can hear the piano better. Have I mentioned I love pianos in music lately?

When to listen: on a long road trip, crank it up and roll down the windows or glamping.