Phosphorescent

Here's to Taking It Easy Dead Oceans ***

If you want a fantasy hybrid of Neil Young, Flying Burrito Brothers, Flaming Lips, Will Oldham and Gene Clark, odds are that Phosphorescent – the brainchild of Matthew Houck, the man behind last year's inventive, authentic album of covers of Willie Nelson songs, To Willie– will be the prime candidate. Here's to Taking It Easysounds as if it is submerged in amniotic fluid, yet its lyrics read as if they were dipped in vitriol; it's a measure of the scope of Houck's lush arranging and acidic writing that the opposites attract and seduce each other until it gets dirty. Best exemplified in The Mermaid Parade, I Don't Care if There's Cursing, and the epic Los Angeles, Phosphorescent blend the Americana hobo aesthetic with the hippie dream/ nightmare (delete where applicable). By turns swaggering, subtle and swoonsome. See myspace.com/phosphorescent

Download tracks: The Mermaid Parade, Los Angeles