Phosphorescent: Here's to Taking It Easy

Label: Dead Oceans

Summer's approaching and we all dream of lying around and doing a whole lot of nothing, but the title of the new Phosphorescent album could give you pause: Making music sound easy is usually pretty hard work. Thankfully, main man Matthew Houck has done his due diligence: Here's to Taking It Easy is totally on-point in Houck's patented urban-rustic idiom, with a handful of his sweetly swaying country-pop numbers like "Tell Me Baby (Have You Had Enough)" and the nearly perfect "We'll Be Here Soon." Houck wanders around the sound-lands he's staked for himself too, with distinct tunes like the mysterious and haunting "Hej, Me I'm Light" and the down-home boogie of "It's Hard to be Humble (When You're from Alabama)." Another relaxed winner from the now Brooklyn-based, regardless of whether he's humble about his roots. (M.L. Thrope)