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The establishing shot of Phosphorescent's second full-length, Aw Come Aw Wry, offers more evidence of Will Oldham's influence on hordes of Southern countryside warblers. But then, after the straightforward achy breaky of "Not A Heel," it grows increasingly clear that 26-year-old, Athens-based Matthew Houck is more than another crooning sad sack. Showcasing an idiosyncratic compositional sense and warped heart, the Alabama-born back-porch balladeer wrangles a dark, dewy, and at times transcendent atmosphere with his raspy voice, mournful sentiments, and rickety orchestra of pump organ, pedal steel, hand claps, and horns. The Wordsworthian spirit of "I Am A Full Grown Man (I Will Lay In the Grass All Day)" is overgrown with loping barroom breaks, space-age gurgles, and frolicsome kitchen-sink percussion. On "South (Of America)" the distant protagonist's diet consists of "watermelons and beer." His words are always this spare, turning everyday hungers into scruffy nighttime poetry. Similarly transforming the pomp of Greek Chorus into a subtle reminder, he interweaves a series of "Aw Come Aw Wry" incidental refrains into the playlist, including a starry-eyed codeine hummer and a tent revival with a drum machine in the first pew. "Endless Pt. 2" starts slow, accruing melancholia and joy through a choir of sighs that float atop echoes of an earlier vocal line replayed within a toy box. On the track, no discernible words are spoken. Likewise, Houck ends with a twenty-minute field recording titled "Nowhere Rd., Georgia, Feb. 21, 2005." Rainfall, thunder breaks, and drenched bird calls are punctuated by the whoosh of cars passing. It's a ballsy exeunt to one of this summer's most beautiful surprises.
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