GENRE | MYSTICAL COWBOY SAGA
VERDICT | GIDDY UP
LABEL | DEAD OCEANS
RELEASE | 3.22.13
The cover photo of Phosphorescent’s latest LP, Muchacho, suggests that what’s to come may be nothing more than a sexy threesome somewhere in the Old West.
But we are all taught at an early age not to judge something by its cover.
The first of the 10 tracks on this album immediately proves my initial instincts wrong. “Sun, Arise! (An Invocation, An Introduction)” is more like the epiphany you have before you embark on a spiritual journey, not a romp. It’s as if Justin Vernon traveled further west than Wisconsin for the first time, during a particularly magical sunrise, and relayed the message to Phosphorescent frontman, Matthew Houck, who then translated it to his own melancholy vocals. Follow that?
The rest of the record holds up to this metaphorical pilgrimage. “Ride On/Right On” speaks to a swaggier side of this cowboy, suggesting he might like to bust a move, while songs like “Terror in the Canyons (The Wounded Master)” and “A New Anhedonia” remind us of darker days.
When all is said and done, I’m happy to go along on his journey, and I’m so glad he remembered to pack the steel pedal.