Named after a Mark Twain short story, Punch Brothers play a cool brand of folk that, dare I say, might have some krautrock influences on their 2015 album The Phosphorescent Blues.
My possible evidence for that is the opening track – “Familiarity.” On it, lead singer and mandolin player Chris Thile goes bonkers on it, playing at the speed of a hummingbird, while singing in seemingly a different time signature, and the rest of the band puts down sparse, repetitive beats and bass for over ten minutes. Crank up the fuzz and put in a second drummer and this could be an Oh Sees tune.
The record is full of musical mastery like this. The bass line on “Julep” is so smooth that it might cause you to fall on the floor. “Passepied (Debussy)” is a nice instrumental. “I Blew It Off” and “Magnet” are as good pop tunes that Fountains of Wayne might’ve written. “My Oh My” has great vocal work to back the instruments, and “Boll Weevil” gets back to the band’s folk roots with subtle instruments to underscore the lazy nature of a warm morning in Appalachia.
“Forgotten” comes after another short instrumental and is a soft track with some underlying jazz bass that makes it excel. There’s a fun bounce to “Between 1st and A” after Thile’s vocal intro. It continues throughout the song and puts a pep in your step like a walk on a cool fall day. The album ends with “Little Lights,” a soft ballad that takes its time and is all the better for it. The song is under five minutes long, but it seems longer – in the best possible way.
It’s an impressive record, and a pleasure to hear such master musicians at work.
Keep your mind open.
[I’ll have the blues if you don’t subscribe.]
