Hooves on the Turf

Download “A Picture of Our Torn Up Praise”

[imeem http://media.imeem.com/m/c8_dMeQE8Z/aus=false/]

Release: October 23, 2007 from Dead Oceans

As much as it’s filled with repetitious melodies and lyrics that aren’t the full force of poetry yet, Matthew Houck’s Pride, released under the name Phosphorescent, is a beautiful album. Indeed, the repetitions evoke a sense of containment, which effects a devotion that requires little or no straying. And so the voice stays on course one wistful song after the other, borrowing their solemness from hymns, though tucked away in the background of some are movements more energetic and spontaneous. There is also a successful employment of a choir throughout, which is apt for a project that sounds like it was produced for the singer’s own salvation, and which smooths the sound surrounding his flaking voice.

More after the jump.

Key to the album is a realm in which spirituality and solitude become one and the same, as do selfishness and selflessness, and perhaps God and a lover. Just as religion might blossom when solitude is allowed to bloom, so might the brightest of inspirations. And so the artist must, if he is to save himself through his art, be able to open himself up and gleam in solitude. From the impression Pride eventually radiates, Matthew Houck seems to have done so, perhaps benefiting from his time spent in the south before he moved to Brooklyn.

The lyrics have a particularly minimalist style to them, and the stories they tell by evoking misty images are always interesting. The star of the album is the song “Wolves”. Here the lyrics are pronounced more clearly than elsewhere, which seems reasonable, given it also tells the record’s most intriguing tale – about wolves that have come into the house who mate during the night and won’t make nice, but whose beauty in the light there is to sing about.

New York City dates
11/09/07 Brooklyn, NY – Venue TBA (Todd P show)
11/10/07 New York, NY – Cake Shop