I was never a huge fan, yet I’m really surprised at Phosphorescent’s new song “The Mermaid Parade”. The voice is pretty as usual (great for singing forlornly about wolves), but this entire song is one boring melody repeated incessantly, with lyrics that attempt to invoke the salty smell of a sultry evening (I guess?) but fail to capture anything at all: the emotion is really flat (for being a sentimental song), and there’s not even an imagery or a rhyme that claims a territory in your brain. Did I mention there’s way too much bluesy guitar? That’s probably why The Tripwire thinks it’s “an American classic”, and that’s the only reason I’m terrified. Listen to it, what do you think?

PS. Just listened to it again. The ending is just horrendous.

Download “The Mermaid Parade“

Photo above: Original by Sebastian Mlynarski. I just put my picture of a naked dancing “mermaid” on top it.

A mix of light rain and resolute sunshine led to a rainbow over Brooklyn while These United States was playing. Back home this kind of weather means a fox wedding. It was kind of perfect. Lots of people were out. Someone lent me a towel to wipe my wet chair with. That was nice.

These United States
It probably won’t be too long before These United States updates their set list to let songs from their upcoming album, Everything Touches Everything, dominate; but for now, their live favorites from the last two albums are far from wilting. Every time they’re played live, they’re an explosion of a rowdy soundtrack to stories that weave between an equally rowdy cast of characters. Playing on a big stage on a special evening, weather-wise, with that rainbow spread wide behind the trees, it was a special farewell of sort to the old These United States. They rocked way harder than Phosphorescent and Dr. Dog combined.

Phosphorescent
I spent a whole year mixing Bon Iver up with Phosphorescent. Songs about wolves, videos on a winter-y mountain, a common label, the facial hair: there were too many traps laid before my poor mind. Finally having seen both of them live, though, Bon Iver’s shows seem stronger. Most of it might just be because of Justin Vernon’s regular-guy personality combined with devoted sing-along’s at their Music Hall of Williamsburg show, but at the heart of it,  Phosphorescent’s performance just didn’t capture the prettiness and fragility of their album, whereas Bon Iver did. Good performance nonetheless.

Dr. Dog
Before Dr. Dog took came on, the entire stage got a flowery decor. It looked lovely. Lots of energy, great presence, but the songs are a little too bland. They remind me of Illinois. Not a huge fan of either.

Phosphorescent | Download “Torn Up Praise”

City Center | Download “Bleed Blood”

Castanets | Download “All That I Know to Have Changed You”

Picture Picture:

[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