There’s something both charming and admirable about an artist who is not afraid to embrace a genre’s conventions and use them as a canvas for expression. Acts like Wilco, My Morning Jacket and singer-songwriter Matthew Houck’s side project Phosphorescent lean heavily on a certain aspect of their songs: familiarity. Anyone can croon over three chords of country blues, but there’s something intensely personal and sympathetic about absolute bare-facedness of an album like Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
Houck’s latest album comes close to this ideal, but fails to achieve this same level of individuality. Phosphorescent’s Muchacho settles into a groove too, but unfortunately it’s one that feels all too comfortable by the end. Muchacho does little to offend but, by the same token, little to distinguish itself.
Unsurprisingly, it’s Muchacho’s most adventurous songs that fare the best. “Sun, Arise!,” an album opener consisting of little more than a keyboard arpeggio and a chorus of voices, sets an interesting tone for the rest of the album that is hinted at but only rarely achieved. “Song for Zula” exists as the most contemporary-sounding and intricate of the bunch, and “Terror in the Canyons” swells with fluid slide guitar and beautiful orchestral accompaniments. “Sun, Arise!” and “Muchacho’s Tune” drip with gorgeous reverb too, concealing their otherwise uninteresting songwriting.
But, Houck’s intricately arranged production only goes so far when what’s under it is still safe, predictable alt-country. Muchacho does a great deal to put you in its comfortable, sun-drenched country world, but, unfortunately, not a whole lot to make you want to stay there.
I have to admit that at a certain point I gave up hoping for something more daring and learned to embrace what was already there. Behind the veneer of Houck’s songwriting lies a compelling voice that I’d love to see married with some more varied musicality. Belying his surprising vocal range and flexibility is his ability to sound defeated and downtrodden one moment and triumphant the next. Houck’s voice cracks with apprehensive optimism on tracks like “Muchacho’s Tune” where he brokenheartedly sings “I’ll fix myself up to come and be with you” and openly admits he’s been “f——- up and … a fool.” It’s hard not to imagine the intense range of emotions that went into these songs, but even easier to wish for some instrumentation powerful and unique enough to match it.
It may be a lot to ask for an alt-country album in the year 2013 to shock or surprise me, but as I listened to Muchacho, I couldn’t help but feel like it was missing just an extra ounce of personality that it needed to make itself something special. When a lot of artists aren’t content to strive for producing anything less than the latest rollercoaster of an experience, Phosphorescent settles for the log flume: familiar, safe and comfortable.
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