Phosphorescent: Here's to taking it easy (Dead Oceans)

Dearlie was on about this album for bloody ages and, although i'd heard a few tracks, i'd never really given it much thought. Cue a day in Bristol and seeing it cheap in Head and i decided that i needed to see what the bugger was going on about. I'd previously thought of the band as a bit of Will Oldham with smoother vocals and a less bizarre facial appearance, but that's being a bit disingenuous to both of 'em really.  Mr Phos   has a much better voice, sure, but his songs are far more routed in the early '70s country-folk-rock tradition of The Band than in  the Appalachian Sister-banging of Mr Oldham and this is what sets them firmly apart. Slide guitar is all over the place but it has more of a rock feel to it than a country album and this makes it rises head and shoulders above a lot of the other Americana, as well as the quality of the song writing.  Oh, the song writing - fuck me, Mr Phos is a good songwriter - the songs are rarely immediate but, given a few listens, they start to bounce around your brain like familiar friends that you are always happy to see. Any guy that can create a piece like 'Hej, me i'm light' - whereby the lyrics are merely the title repeated endlessly whilst a simple handclap beats underneath and a guitar winds its way around the words, and turn it into a near-gospel near-godlike experience, well shee-it - that guy rules as far as i'm concerned. Weirdly enough, the least successful tracks are those that reference country the strongest - 'Heaven, sitting down', whilst still very enjoyable, is too fucking much in awe of Gram and needlessly so as Mr Phos has very much his own voice. Great, really great.