All Life

Phosphorescent - At Death, a Proclamation.

No one ever likes being told that they've got a lot of potential. All that ever means is that you're not as awesome as you could be. For me, that's not so much a motivating factor because it's just a reminder that I'm probably letting people down. But I will admit to always feeling that Matthew Houck's Phosphorescent never quite lived up to their potential. I know. It's an awful thing to say, but it's just how it was. Friends had always tried to convince me of his relative greatness, but it was never quite enough.

But now we have his new album, Pride.

And I take back what I said. They've done it. I don't know where it came from or how they did it -- what changed between the last album and this one. A confident voice has emerged, a musical vision. It's all fallen into place and in eight short songs they completely blow me away. Though it is the shortest on the album, At Death, A Proclamation is my favorite, followed closely by Wolves.

You can hear the tape machine crackling and hissing in the background, giving quiet mechanical life to a song about death. The machine rangles in all the voices, epic in scope and scale, heartbreaking in their harmonic rise. A reedy organ fills what few gaps remain while drums thin as rice paper keep time for the army of Matthew Houcks marching to heaven. In one minute and fifty three seconds Phosphorescent announces its arrival, plants its flag firmly, and just as quickly retreats.

After years of teasing me with mostly good albums and one excellent EP, Phosphorescent has finally come into its own and created a complete masterpiece. Pride is easily in the running for top ten of the year. It's always a joy when a band finally delivers on the promise of great things. The album isn't available until the 23rd of October from our good friends at Dead Oceans, but it's definitely worth the wait. Highly recommended.