Phosphorescent - Pride LP

Raised in Alabama, Houck has always made music steeped in the Southern-gothic tradition, a sweet American folk soaked in atmosphere like a pound cake in rum. On 2005's 'Aw Come Aw Wry', our weary-voiced bandleader cemented his reputation for making masterpiece albums filled with hallelujahs for both grace and tragedy with songs that swung from ramshackle and joyous to broken and pleading in the space of a prayer. The live show swung along this arc – with Houck sometimes backed by up to 14 or 15 members – creating a full-blown, shambling, marching-brass-band-revival-tent celebration. 'Pride' is something different. While it's not without the moments of sheer abandon that have made Phosphorescent's work unmistakable—“At Death, A Proclamation” thunders into familiar territory—mostly gone are the messy marching bands and evangelical fervor. Here, Houck instead channels something more mystical and haunting, offering up a dark, meditative set of songs that is all the more spiritual-sounding