Revelator and Oh, Canada Soundtrack by Phosphorescent

Slow and steady. That’s Phosphorescent’s modus operandi. Matthew Houck’s songwriting vehicle may very well end up being my most favorite band of my lifetime. There are others that are in the running for that title, and it changes with the tides, but as of right now, no other band has more consistently answered the question “Hmmm, what should I listen to right now?” over the last 15+ years. I’ve gone up and down on where to slot Houck’s albums in amongst the rest of a year’s output – he’s fallen into the bottom half twice (#20 in 2010 and #19 in 2022), and has been the absolute best of the year twice (#1 in both 2013 and 2018 – the only artist to have done so two times) – but any one of his albums, and even those that came out earlier than 2009 when I started logging my Top 31, would be a fine choice to put on, in any mood, at any time, during any season.

Revelator is his ninth album, depending on whether you count live albums (that would make it 10), or do not count his 2022 effort that was released one song per month throughout the year (which Wikipedia does not have listed ¹, and would therefore make it only eight total). Like all eight of his other albums, it’s a slow burn of low-fi alt.country bliss. Houck’s voice gets scratchier, his delivery lazier as time goes on – but neither of these things are negatives. Like Tom Waits over time, Phosphorescent albums get more nuanced and rough-around-the-edges.

Be sure to hit play on the title song, above, or on these two other videos he’s released in support of the album: “Impossible House” and “The World is Ending.” The latter, “The World is Ending,” marks the first time an original Phosphorescent song was not written by Houck. Instead, it was written by his musical collaborator, partner, and mother of his children Jo Schornikow. There is no earthly way you’d be able to tell that difference if I hadn’t put it in writing here, as the album flows through the song without friction. In addition to Houck and Shornikow, the album was recorded with Jack Lawrence from The Raconteurs and Jim White of the Dirty Three.

We were lucky to get more than one Phosphorescent album in 2024. In addition to Revelator, Houck created the soundtrack for the film Oh, Canada, starring Richard Gere, Michael Imperioli, and Uma Thurman. I have not yet seen the film, but thankfully the soundtrack has been released for us all to enjoy. According to Wikipedia, director Paul Schrader “wanted something anti-anthemic” for the film, and deemed Phossy’s style as “officially anti-anthemic.” I don’t know about “official,” But I 100% second this emotion.

When my wife and I saw Phosphorescent perform at the Rickshaw in Vancouver back in October 2024, Houck revealed the upcoming soundtrack and played a few songs from it. He described the songs as having been old OLD Phosphorescent songs that he had reworked for the film. It will not surprise you to learn that these songs sound very much like contemporary songs from Houck, which is to say, he’s not aged one bit.

Another hallmark of Houck’s songwriting is the depression they evoke. Aside from Houck’s #1 2018 album, C’est La Vie, which is surprisingly upbeat in content and tempo, most Phosphorescent albums are slow and sad. Fantastic, wallow in the doldrums, tear me all the way down so I can climb back up kinda sad. This assessment will not be new to anyone who’s listened to Phosphorescent. After playing two songs at the show in October, Houck told us, “What I’ve learned is, right now, about the third song in is a pretty good time to let everybody know that it’s straight ’bummers’ from here on out” – which caused us all to burst out laughing, because the likelihood of that being true was great (See for yourself: watch my video of him saying that followed by a beautiful rendition of “The World is Ending”). But in the end, the rest of the show, like all of the shows I’ve seen him perform, had a great mix of loud and soft, fast and slow. A Phosphorescent performance is unlike any other, and worth traveling great lengths to enjoy.

The years between Phosphorescent records are both exciting and anxious. While Houck has never really stopped making music, it for some reason never feels like a sure thing that he’s going to keep going. He’s built up quite a legacy over his 25 years of making music, and I suppose I should be content with the wealth we’ve been given. But he keeps giving us more greatness, and like the spoiled children we are, we will always wont for more.

^{1. But thanks to me making my first-ever contribution to a Wikipedia page, it now does.↩}