New Releases category interest

Earlier this year, Phosphorescent’s Matthew Houck announced Revelator, a new album out April 5 as his debut for Verve Records. Today, he releases new single “Impossible House”, which follows the album's title track "Revelator" — named a Best Of The Week selection by the New York Times' Playlist and Rolling Stone's Songs You Need To Know. The single comes alongside the announcement of his first UK tour in six years this August, including a show at London's Koko. Houck will also perform at this year's End of the Road Festival in England. Before his European dates, Phosphorescent will spend May touring across the Southeastern US - preceded by a special Nashville show at 3rd andamp; Lindsley later this month on March 17. 

Watch the video for Phosphorescent's "Impossible House" here: https://phosphorescent.lnk.to/ImpossibleHouseMV

 

“Impossible House” is Houck at the peak of his powers, the culmination of years spent quietly perfecting his own sound, a pained beauty with an immaculate, warm tone. The track uses domestic imagery not as idylls, but as mechanisms of distance, grappling with the challenges of maintaining long-term partnerships. With the release of the album's title track in January, Houck said, "I think it might be the best song I’ve ever written", if that was the case for 'Revelator', then 'Impossible House' only serves to ratchet up the quality of these singles.

As with “Impossible House”, Revelator ruminates on questions that can be difficult to answer: why a seemingly idyllic life can be defined by an ambient sense of dread, or the natural ways we drift from each other and from ourselves. But true to its title, this is a work intent on finding hard-won reclamation, reinvention and revelation in life's day-to-day.

Produced by Houck and recorded in his Nashville studio over the course of six months, Revelator features collaborators including Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs, Jim White of Dirty Three and Houck’s partner — singer-songwriter and pianist Jo Schornikow — who wrote an original song for the album, “The World Is Ending”, marking the first Phosphorescent track to be written by someone other than Houck. Elsewhere, inspiration is drawn from seeing the world anew through their children’s eyes, and a surprisingly profound (albeit mildly obscene) series of messages scrawled on a bar bathroom wall.

Revelator directly follows 2022’s The Full Moon Project, which found Houck releasing monthly covers of many of his favorite artists. The most recent Phosphorescent full- length album, 2018’s C’est La Vie, saw Houck met with praise as “one of those naturals, a Petty or a Springsteen" (Brooklyn Vegan) and “the guy you actually want to sit next to you at a bar” (NPR Music) - plus memorable television performances on Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Late Late Show, and CBS Saturday Morning.

 

Pre-order Revelator here: https://phosphorescent.lnk.to/Revelator

 

Tour dates:

March 17 - Nashville, TN @ Lightning 100's Nashville Sunday Night

May 13 - Oxford, MS @ Proud Larry's

May 15 - Fort Worth, TX @ Tannahill Tavern and Music Hall

May 16 - Austin, TX @ Scoot Inn

May 17 - Cherokee, TX @ Cherokee Creek Music Festival

May 18 - Houston, TX @ House of Blues Bronze Peacock

May 20 - Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West

May 21 - Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel

May 23 - Charlottesville, VA @ Jefferson Theatre

May 24 - Charlotte, NC @ Neighborhood Theatre

May 25 - Charleston, SC @ Music Farm

Aug 18 - Stockholm, SE @ Stockholm Roots

Aug 19 - Olso, NO @ Cosmopolite Scene

Aug 20 - Gothenburg, SE @ Pustervik

Aug 21 - Tønder, DK @ Tønder Festival

Aug 22 - Tønder, DK @ Tønder Festival

Aug 24 - Berlin, DE @ Frannz Club

Aug 25 - Utrecht, NL @ Tivolivredenburg Pandora Hall

Aug 26 - Antwerp, BE @ OLT Rivierenhof

Aug 27 - London, UK @ Koko

Aug 28 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club 

Aug 29 - Dublin, IE @ Whelan's

Aug 31 - Larmer Tree Gardens, UK @ End of the Road Festival

Sept 20-22 - Camden, NJ @ XPN Fest