1/23/2024 0 Comments Punch your lights out song![]() What can I say? It's downright catchy fun. ![]() In context with the album, it declares full abandonment of the mental pacing in circles, blowing off all of the stress and underlying grievances. The musical complexity expected from from Punch Brothers is alive and well, even moreso considering that they've dared to include electric guitars and a drumset to their usual acoustic quintet of instruments and still maintain their balancing act of visceral and cerebral. In actuality, it's more reminiscent of the older, better pop and hints of classic rock, but only vaguely so. The track that sparked early fear and doubt in this album's merit, I Blew It Off was the source of accusations of selling out to lousy modern pop. Very understated, but never underwhelming.Ĭlassical homage is alive and well in this track: dainty, brooding, balanced as ever and insanely captivating, pompous without pretentiousness, ticking away in a calculated and slightly concerned manner. From this empty framework, an expanding crescendo fills in the missing pieces until the full sonic image is in place, with soaring vocals and intense rhythm, and that begins to incorporate the whimsy of the beginning, but with a newfound sense of grandeur, which then passes over and subdues itself to a soft, optimistic conclusion.įamiliarity flows seamlessly into the second track, which has a more regular structure but is sprinkled with spontaneous subtleties, a distant dance in the corners of the mind. The album begins on a very whimsical, almost innocent note, with each instrument ebbing and flowing in and out beneath the melody like tranquil currents in a playful stream, but it quickly descends into a percussive, vaguely eerie segment, defined by echoing pulses in a void of silence that draws the listener in. The opening track has more development and breadth than most albums have in their entirety. If you'd like to sample the album, another thread has posted a link: Along that thin line resides a music that is unpredictable to the listener, but makes sense and provides rewarding moments as it unfolds and reveals its hidden structure, and it's this nuanced region of the mind that Punch Brothers thrive in. Punch Brothers do not pigeon-hole themselves into any one genre, style, mindset, or perception, instead choosing to walk a thin line between the visceral and cerebral aspects of music, balancing emotion and technical ability in a way that's neither exhaustive nor erudite. It makes for a great listen late in the night, in pitch blackness with eyes shut, closing out the rest of the world so that this world can be explored without distraction. The album as a whole is incredibly diverse and explores many possibilities, but nothing is tangential it is very much cohesive, so it's best heard from start to finish. It's more akin to Radiohead than anything, but even then, it's impossible to define this album as any one thing without missing the other 99% of what it is and what it can be. To clear up some misconceptions and bad speculation, it is not "Punch Brothers selling out or going pop." It's not a bluegrass album either, but it doesn't try to be, not in the slightest. I have nothing better to do at the moment than press black rectangles with white letters to make black letters on a white rectangle, so here's my thoughts and ramblings pertaining to Punch Brothers' most recent and arguably most captivating album: The Phosphorescent Blues, potentially Punch Brothers' equivalent of Radiohead's Kid A.
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